Land Hidden in the Americas
by Gina Tsukiko
Summary: What happens when Sakura and Hinata mess up on a summoning jutsu? What have they summoned? How the hech is the "summonee"s get back? Only way to find out is to read! lots of OCs.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my first fan fiction so it may not be that great, but don't worry! I'm co-writing this with my friend YamiWolfGirlArtemis so hopefully between the two of us the story will come out to be pretty good, you be the judge.**

**YamiWolfGirlArtemis: we have lots of ideas too,** **so this shouldn't be too hard…even though I have only watched a few episodes of Naruto.**

**This is supposed to be a Naruto story but I'm not sure yet how many or which one of the characters will be in it. The main characters will be OC and will probably be paired with other OC's as well. As for the normal characters (if they enter) will be NaruxHina, SasuxSaku, and maybe ShikaxIno. **

**By the way I do not own Naruto or any other mangas that might pop up in this story. ****( and any sequels we might do…)**

-

Sakura focused chakra into her palm ignoring the beads of sweat running into her eyes. She and Hinata had been working on this same jutsu all night and neither one of them was able to get the right results, it was almost morning.

"Come on Hinata! I think it's going to work this time!" Hinata nodded her head, a look of determination on her face. Sakura could see the faint green outline that was Hinata's chakra begin to form in her palm.

Usually the green would mean that she was using a healing jutsu, but not this time. This time was different. This time they were trying a new type of summoning jutsu.

Earlier in the week Naruto had come back from one of his training sessions with Jariya showing off some new jutsu. Sakura grimaced as she remembered what Naruto had done.

-

_Naruto ran through the village laughing, heading straight for Ichiraku Ramen. 'I can't believe I actually beat the Pervy Sage! I can't wait to tell Sakura!' Naruto skidded to a halt as he approached the restaurant._

_Naruto's smile grew as he recognized the pink haired kunoichi. Naruto walked in trying to act cool in front of Sakura."Hey Sakura guess what!" Sakura looked up from her bowl of ramen to find an excited blonde haired boy standing over her._

_"What is it Naruto?" Naruto's smile crept back onto his face. 'Oh brother, he's going to start shouting again,' Sakura sighed in her head, 'I knew it wasn't safe to come here.' Sakura put her chopsticks down and turned in her stool to look at Naruto. As she turned the person sitting next to her came into view._

_"Oh hey Hinata! I didn't see you there! Guess what?!" Hinata blushed when Naruto practically shouted her name. She looked down before replying._

_"He...Hello...Na...Naruto. Wh...What...is it?" Sakura smiled. She thought it was cute how Hinata acted around Naruto. She sighed again. 'I wonder if Naruto knows how she feels.'_

_Naruto flashed a huge smile, showing his teeth and clasped his hands behind his head, "I mastered a new jutsu! Pervy Sage said it would take me at least a year but I showed him! It only took me a couple of weeks!" Sakura rolled her eyes. 'Apparently not.'_

_"Sure you did Naruto. I bet it's a really hard jutsu too. Don't you think so Hinata?" Sakura said, sarcasm dripping in her voice. Hinata blushed again and looked down._

_Naruto noticed that Sakura was teasing him but he was too excited to care. "It's true! Here let me show you!" Naruto formed a simple hand sign to channel his chakra through. Then he bit his thumb and formed a circle of blood on his right palm. _

_Sakura merely watched with amusement. Last time Naruto had tried a summoning jutsu he had only summoned a little frog. Sakura frowned, if he had already made a contract with the frogs, then he shouldn't be able to summon anything other than frogs._

_Before Sakura could ask, Naruto held his arms out at shoulder length and clapped his hands together. Naruto smiled in triumph. Sakura looked back at Hinata and raised her eyebrows._

_Hinata had been watching the whole scene with her Byakugan, learning how to perform the jutsu by looking at the chakra system. Hinata blinked and shook her head in bewilderment. _

_Sakura looked back at Naruto who had begun to slowly pull his hands apart, a thin sheen of sweat breaking out on his forehead. Hinata and Sakura gasped as they saw what was forming between Naruto's hands. There was a rope of fire as thick as the circle of blood on his palms hovering in the air. The girls stared in disbelief. Naruto had just summoned his element. With that jutsu you would be able to control it easily, and all you would have to do is think about what you wanted it to do, saving you lots of chakra._

_Naruto looked up to see the look of astonishment on their faces. He gave a smug look as he proceeded to show off. He turned his palms up and watched as the rope of fire bent like a slinky. "Pretty good huh?" Naruto released the jutsu. "Pervy Sage said it was a jutsu that required a lot of strength and concentration! But it's so simple!" Sakura flushed with anger. None of the other shinobi's their age had even heard of it yet, besides Sakura who had heard it from Lady Tsunade. _

_It was supposed to be a very complicated jutsu. Before you could even attempt to try it you had to know what your element was. _

_Naruto leaned in closer to the girls and looked back and forth as if checking to see if anyone was listening. He held up his hand and whispered, "I can teach you if you want. Master Jariya said I was getting really good at it, maybe I can you give you some pointers."_

_Sakura closed her eyes as she tried to suppress her fury, almost hearing a blood vessel pop on her forehead. "Naruto~." Naruto blinked then backed up, suddenly afraid. _

_"YOU IDIOT!!" Hinata closed her eyes as Sakura hit Naruto on the head. When she looked up Naruto was lying on the ground, a cartoon like bump on his head. Sakura leaned over Naruto shaking her fist at him. "I bet I can learn that jutsu faster than you and be able to use it better too!!" Sakura paid for the noodles that she hadn't finished and motioned for Hinata to follow her._

_Hinata paid for her meal as well and bowed to the shop-owner apologizing for the disturbance. But he just gave a good-natured smile and waved her towards an irritated Sakura, angrily taping her foot. She bowed again to Naruto as a good-bye before following Sakura to the training fields behind the Academy. _

_-_

Sakura flushed with anger. It had been almost two weeks and they had only just figured out their element types. The redness on Sakura's face disappeared as she thought about her element.

Out of all the elements that she knew, water was the easiest element to control and the most useful, and she was just lucky enough to get it! Water was smooth and bendable, and easily adapted to its surroundings. Plus, if you tried hard enough, you would be able to change the temperature of the water to ice or vapor. Water was everywhere. She would be hard pressed to be without a weapon with this jutsu!

While water was the easiest element, earth was the strongest. Much to Sakura's surprise, earth turned out to be Hinata's element. Earth was strong and sturdy and able to work in any surrounding. Earth wasn't just restricted to dirt and mud, but could also be applied to plants. A malicious smile grew on Sakura's face as she pictured Ino in front of her dying herb garden, throwing her fists in the air.

Sakura composed her face and looked over at Hinata who nodded her head. Simultaneously bit their fingers and drew shaky circles on their dominant hands. She frowned, she was running low on chakra and she could only assume that Hinata was too.

'Come on Sakura, you can do this.' Sakura took a deep breath and pressed her hands together. Another deep breath and she began to count out loud.

"One...Two..." Sakura heard Hinata gulp. Hinata had pressed her hands together also and had closed her eyes. Sakura closed her eyes as well, frightened that the lack of chakra would cause the jutsu to go wrong. "Three!"

Hinata and Sakura quickly drew their hands apart. They gasped as a bright light pierced through their eyelids. A high screaming sound breaking the early morning silence.

"Hinata! Break the jutsu! Quick!" Sakura stopped channeling chakra to her hands in an attempt to stop the shrieking. But the sound kept going; even the blinding light wasn't letting up. If anything it was getting worse!

Sakura jumped forward to where Hinata had been standing, knocking her down to the ground. Hinata whimpered in fear and covered her head with her hands. Attempting to shield Hinata with her body, Sakura had one last thought before she blacked out, 'What have we done?'

-

The Hokage looked up as the sound of something like a dog whistle reached her ears. Lady Tsunade looked out the wall of windows behind her to see the sun just rising. "Shizune, what is that sound?"

A woman holding a pig poked her head behind the doors to The Hokage's office. She tilted her head in an act of listening closely. "I'm not sure..."

"It's a summoning jutsu." Lady Tsunade looked back towards her office to see a man with white hair and a mask covering half his face standing in the middle of the room, a serious look on his face.

The woman frowned. "What kind of summoning jutsu? It just sounds like a high pitched whistle."

The man shook his head. He pointed out the window at the rising sun. "That is a very powerful summoning jutsu gone wrong." He pointed out a window facing the opposite direction. "_That_ is the sun."

Lady Tsunade's face fell, and then contorted in anger. She stood up so fast that her chair went flying out the window. "Then why don't you stop it?!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

Kakashi lowered his head. "I can't. With that much chakra flying around, someone could get killed. The most we could do was evacuate the area, and hope that whatever was summoned is friendly."

Lady Tsunade's face twitched in frustration. She banged her fists on the desk, cracking yet another desk in two. "Damn."

-

Sarah looked over her friend Melanie, who was standing in front of a mirror. They were trying to figure out a good cosplay outfit for their Anime Club meeting. So far they could only find outfits for Sarah and Mae.

"Let's see, long blonde hair and blue eyes. I don't know Mae, what do you think?" Sarah turned around to see Mae messing with Melanie's computer.

"Hey! Be careful! That cost a lot of money you know." Melanie rushed around her bed and closed the laptop practically on Mae's hands. Mae pouted and whined like a dog. Melanie just grinned at her.

Sarah sighed and tried again. "Mae, who do you think Melanie can be?" Mae jumped off the bed, her costume not hindering her movements. She had chosen to be Kairi from Kingdom Hearts I. She had made it herself using scrap fabric lying around her house. With her short red hair it completed the look well.

Mae put her finger to her lips and 'hmm'ed, circling around a frustrated Melanie (still standing near the laptop). She had been standing, and circling, and bending over, letting them sit and think about different manga characters that she could find clothes to match in her closet. Melanie was getting really  
annoyed by it, then again, she gets annoyed by just about anything Mae does.

Mae shook her head. "I don't know, the only one I can think of is Namine, and that's you." She pointed at Sarah then flopped onto Melanie's bed, squishing any stuffed animals in her way. Melanie thought about it too, but couldn't think of any outfits she had that would match a character from an anime/manga/game. "I can't think of anything either, Sarah."

Sarah looked down at her dress. Originally it had reached down to her ankles, and the straps that had held it up had been tied in knots to keep it up. But after letting Mae alter it, it now reached down to her knees, not including the inch of lace, and didn't need the knots on the straps anymore. Though it did still have that flap on the front that made it look Greek.

She groaned before lying down on the futon next to the bed. Melanie sighed and started paying Zelda's Lullaby on her keyboard. Mae sat up and started to sway to the rhythm with her eyes closed. Sarah closed her eyes too and imagined a baby Zelda falling asleep to the so melody. Then she got an idea so great, that she practically heard the light bulb ding over her head.

"I got it!" She yelled, so suddenly, that she startled Mae into falling off the side of the bed. Melanie burst out laughing at Mae who had landed on her head. Giggling slightly, Sarah stepped over Mae, who was rubbing her head and smiling, to the closet. She started to move Melanie's clothes around.

Melanie too walked over to the closet (also stepping over Mae) suppressing her laughter enough to ask, "What are you looking for Sarah?" Mae lay back on her back to look at Sarah better. Sarah looked back at Melanie and held up a pink dress.

"You are going to be The Princess of Hyrule!" Sarah smiled a look of triumph on her face. Melanie grinned and started comparing what little dresses she had to what Zelda wore in all the Zelda games (she owned them all) and said "but I don't- and was cut off as Sarah tossed the dress to Melanie, who smiled and mumbled under her breath "I don't remember having a dress like this…" Melanie went into the bathroom to change. Sarah started to look for some gold jewelry that Melanie could wear.

Mae smacked herself on the head. "I could have thought of that! I mean look at all this Zelda stuff! It was so obvious!" Mae crawled over to closet and started looking for shoes that would match the pink dress.

Sarah sat on the bed with a gold necklace in her hands and smiled evilly at Mae. "Maybe I'm just smarter than you." Mae looked up at Sarah, a smile on her face as well.

"And the Kyo/Yuki battle continues!" Sarah laughed as Mae yelled and punched her fist in the air. Mae had this fantasy/conspiracy theory that Sarah was Yuki from Fruits Basket and that she was better at everything than her, Kyo.

"What do you think?" Sarah and Mae looked upas Melanie walked back into the room. The pink dress reached down all the way to the floor and had long tight sleeves in typical Zelda fashion. It even had a small blue part that reached from the waist to the bottom of the dress, also Zelda fashion. Melanie twirled around making the dress fan out like a flower. Sarah giggled and handed her the necklace.

"Thanks. Although I still don't remember getting this dress, it's perfect. Did you guys find any shoes?" Melanie said over her shoulder as she put on the necklace in front of the mirror. Nobody answered. Sarah looked back at the closet where Mae was supposed to be.

"Hey Mae! You still here?" Still no answer. Sarah rolled her eyes and smiled at Melanie's reflection, which smiled back.

"Oh Mary Ann~. I have some ramen for you~." Melanie said in a sing-song voice. They heard a gasp from under the bed that was followed by urgent struggling. Then it was quiet again.

Sarah looked at Melanie with a question in her eyes. Melanie just shrugged and looked back at the bed.

They heard a sigh and then Mae speaking from under the bed. "Hey guys, I think I'm stuck." Sarah and Melanie burst out laughing.

"Hey! It's not that funny! You have a lot of stuff under here!" After awhile they stopped laughing and helped her out from under the trap of a bed. Melanie wiping away tears.

Mae looked around the room then back at the two other girls. "Where's the ramen?" The statement, even though it was said with pure confusion, just earned her more laughter that ultimately ended with Sarah and Melanie rolling around on the floor laughing.

The laughter finally ended when Mae's phone went off. She calmly flipped open her pink katana and read the text message.

anime club cancelled. enjoy friends' house.

-mom-

"Yay!" Mae jumped up in the air and landed back on the bed on her knees. Sarah and Melanie sat up still smiling and wiping tears away.

"What is it?" Sarah stood all the way up and tapped Mae on the head.

"The anime club meeting is cancelled and I get to stay here with you guys!" Melanie groaned and lay back on the floor, thinking that it was one of the worst things that has happened to her today. Sarah smiled again and poked Melanie in the ribs, making her giggle.

"Come on Melanie; let's go show off your creek." Melanie grinned and went back into the bathroom to change into her normal clothes (a kind of tight brown shirt that says 'Hershies' on it). Sarah reached over to her overnight bag and started changing too (a black shirt that said 'I hate pink' on it and jeans); making sure that Mae (changing into a pink shirt, black pants) couldn't see her

-

"Wow! Your woods are way better than mine! I mean you even have these huge rocks. Look I'm a Billy Goat!" Melanie and Sarah laughed as they watched Mae jump around on the rocks in the middle of the creed, 'baah'ing like a goat. Mae stopped and kneeled next to the water.

"You know this reminds me of that one episode in Naruto. You know the ones with the chuunin exams?" Sarah sat next to Mae and dipped her feet in the water.

"Oh yeah, I remember that one, they were like the only ones I watched. Hey Sarah, isn't that water cold?" Melanie looked down at the Sarah from her place in a tree.

"Not really, it's kinda warm actually. Okay, next question. If you could do any kind of ninjutsu, what element would you use? I call water!" Mae rocked back and forth on her heels as she thought.

"Oh, Oh, I get earth!" Melanie half said half shouted.

"Aw, man. I wanted that one. Fine, I get sound." Sarah looked over at Mae out of the corner of her eye.

"Sound? What good is that?" Melanie asked.

"You know, for genjutsu. Illusions? It's perfect! I can make you go insane just by whistling." Mae whistled and acted like she was dying.

"I think you can already do that Mae. I think I'm the only one (maybe besides Sarah) who hasn't gone crazy by listening to your voice." said Melanie, grinning evilly and jumping down from her place in the tree, landing  
next to Sarah.

They laughed for awhile and listened to the whistle echo through the trees. The whistling grew louder and the trio had to cover their ears. The sound grew in frequency as Melanie tried to shout (angrily) over the noise.

"Mae! What did you do?!" Mae shook her head and tried to answer back but her voice was drowned out (which surprised both Melanie and Sarah, since Mae was the loudest person they knew). Sarah looked back and forth and saw that a bright light was starting shine from where the water was supposed to be coming from.

_Oh no!_ Sarah reached for her friends' heads and made them duck down before blacking out.

-

Sakura woke up with a start. _What happened?_ She looked around at the white walls and single window looking out into the town. The only other things in the room were an IV and another bed next to it. _Who else is here?_ Sakura leaned forward to get a better look. Sakura gasped.

_Hinata! Oh my God! The jutsu! What happened?!_ Sakura tried to get only to fall back onto the bed reeling with nausea.

"So you're finally awake." Sakura looked over to see Lady Tsunade standing in the shadows. Lady Tsunade's voice dropped from a gentle whisper to a harsh one. "I want to know just what you were thinking out there. Performing that level of jutsu with little chakra and experience after staying up all night? I thought I taught you better than that."

Sakura winced as the Hokage's voice steadily grew louder. "You're just lucky that you and Hinata are all right. Never mind the panic that you caused with the villagers." Lady Tsunade covered her face with her hand and took three deep breaths.

_Wow, she must have been really worried to get this worked up._ "Whatever, it doesn't matter. What does matter though is what you summoned. That was a lot of chakra that you two used, we don't know yet what exactly you summoned though." She turned toward the door and said back over her shoulder. "Whatever it is, I've already sent the Anbu out to search; don't worry. Now get some rest, I'll send Shizune with some food."

-

**Not bad for a first story ( I hope ). Please remember to review, I promise that if I'm happy I'll update faster. And if you want to make me happy all you have to do is give me some feedback on what you thought of the first chapter.**

**Hope you liked it and that you'll read the next chapter!**

**YamiWolfGirlArtemis: what she means is we both will be happier oh, and a sneak  
peak to the reviewer who guesses who I'm supposed to be, and who she's  
supposed to be J hint: green is my favorite color, and hers is blue…now  
guess. And there may be some cussing (in Japanese) in the future chapters.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Alright! Second chapter! O.k. the first chapter might not have been that good, but I aim to improve! I hope that you will enjoy the rest of our story! Any kind of review will be greatly appreciated. Please review!**

**Wolf-girl-Artemis: oops, last time, I used my youtube user account name, not fan fiction, oh well, and there are two Japanese words you need to know, for this chapter, and future reference: Riku=earth, and Mitsune=water. And somebody please tell me if I got those wrong, okay? Ah, and also, please give this fanfic life by reviewing, okay? Reviews are the life of fanfics. Well, now to the story.**

**-**

Sarah groaned as she slowly lifted her head of the ground. _Where am I?_ She looked around, trying to take in her surroundings as well as she could. Everywhere she looked there was nothing but green grass, green trees and...green light? Looking up she saw that the trees even blocked out most of the sky.

_This reminds me of those photos of rainforests._ Sarah kept staring at the scenery before that thought sunk in. _Okay, calm down, there is no way I'm in a rainforest._ She took three deep breaths before actually attempting to stand up. Sarah stood there going in a circle, paying more attention to where she was.

_Okay. Trees, trees...and more trees. Geez, I don't even see Melanie or Mae._ Sarah gasped. _Oh my God! That's right! There was some kind of explosion, and I blacked out. I have to find them! They could be hurt, or passed out like I was, or maybe..._ She froze and tried to get her breathing under control.

_Sarah calm down. You'll do them no good if you're panicking._ Taking a few more calming breaths she started to look for her friends. _I wonder if we're even still in Melanie's backyard._ Sarah shook her head and focused again on navigating through the dense foliage.

After a couple of minutes she came upon a river cutting through what she thought was Melanie's yard. _Definitely not Melanie's house. Oh well, might as well have a drink._ She walked over to the stream and cupped her hands to scoop up some water when she caught sight of her reflection.

Sarah screamed. "Oh...My...God. What the heck happened to my clothes?!" Sarah stood up and looked down at used to be a pair of jeans. Now she was wearing a dress. A dress. There was no possible reason for her to wear a dress, she hated dresses. Sure she would wear them on special occasions, but that was like once a year.

The dress was a light blue that reached almost to the ground. The collar dipped to a point to meet right above her chest and had no sleeves. Sarah turned to try and get a look at the back when she noticed the part in the bottom of the dress. On both sides of the dress it split all the way up to pocket height, underneath was a pair of black shorts. She looked at her feet to find that her sneakers had been replaced too. Now she was wearing shinobi issue sandals.

_Wait, shinobi sandals? What the heck?!_ Sarah yelled in frustration. She lost her friends, she was lost, hungry, and thirsty and now some creep had changed her clothes. "Whatever. I just need to find the others and we're out of here. First get a drink then follow it to some kind of town."

For the second time she bent down to drink. She dropped her head and sighed into her hands. "What next?" Her hair and eye colors had changed. Now instead of having blonde hair, it was a light brown reaching down to the middle of her waist and not her shoulders. Now instead of having blue eyes, they were amber colored. The good thing was that now she knew that someone else hadn't changed her clothes while she was sleeping; bad thing was that now she didn't look anything like herself.

_Man this sucks! Now I bet even Melanie won't be able to tell who I am._ "Alright, no water for me. Next thing I know I'll have six arms too." Sarah stood up and started following the stream to what she hoped would lead to town.

-

"Who are you?"

"No, who are you?"

"I asked you first!"

"So!?" The two girls stared at each other. They had been arguing like this for a while now and neither one of them was ready to give up.

_Who is this chick? I just met her and already we're fighting? What gives? This only happens whenever...No way!_ The brown haired girl straightened up and looked to blonde in the face. She shrugged. _Only one way to find out._

"Oh my God, look! That chokobo has your ramen!" She gasped when the other girl actually looked.

"NO WAY!! WHERE? I'll get it!!" The other girl pivoted on her heels and started to run in the direction that Melanie had pointed.

"No wait I lied! Don't you recognize me?" Melanie walked over to Mae who stood there with a weird look on her face.

"Melanie? Is that you? It has to be you! I don't know anyone else who can argue like that!" Mae's face burst into a silly grin as she recognized her. Then her face fell as she looked closer at who she was talking to. "But wait, I don't remember you having that color hair, or length of hair, and where did you get those clothes? They're so cool!"

"What are you...?" Melanie looked down at herself and was shocked at what she saw. She was wearing a black shirt with short sleeves that reached right above her belly button. Her pants were now a black skort (half short half skirt) that didn't even reach her knees. Both the shirt and the skort were decorated with pale pink cherry blossoms. On her arms and legs were a kind of fishnet material that alternated between her upper and lower arms and legs. Her tennis shoes had also been exchanged for some funky blue sandals.

"What did you say my hair looks like?" Melanie's voice wavered as she waited for Mae's answer.

"Well now your hair only reaches to your ears, and it's this really dark brown color. Oh yeah and I think your eyes changed from blue to some kind of brown hazel color." Melanie stared at Mae appalled, wondering how her eyes changed color.

"Oh Hey! Did my hair and eyes change color too?!" Mae bounced up and down looking expectantly at Melanie.

"Yeah, and it's kind of creeping me out. You look like some kind of demented Sailor Moon." Mae squealed and waited for her to continue. "Your hair has gotten extremely long, was put into two piggy tails, and is now a really bright blonde." Mae looked at her a little disappointed.

"That doesn't sound demented." Melanie cringed a little.

"Well, your eyes are red; I think that's pretty weird if you ask me." Melanie blocked her ears as Mae gave another high pitched squeal.

"Sweet! What kind of clothes did I get?" She looked down at herself in anticipation. She was wearing what kind of looked like a typical Japanese school uniform. The only difference was that the top was a bright yellow and the skirt was a shade of red that matched her eyes. "You're right, my hair is long. Oh hey! I have red highlights too! This is so cool." Mae paused and looked over at Melanie.

She was sitting on the ground her head in her hands. Mae walked over and poked her in the side, trying to get her attention. "Hey, are you alright?" Melanie wiped her eyes at non-existent tears.

"No I'm not alright. We're lost, we don't look like ourselves, and worst of all we have no idea where Sarah is." _Plus I'm stuck with you._ Melanie sighed and ran her hands through her now short hair.

"Well that's an easy one. If we're here then that means that Sarah's here too, all we have to do is find her. Heck, she might already be looking for us." Mae leaned down into Melanie's face and made a pouting frown. "Come little Miss Raincloud, let's go find her."

Melanie looked up at Mae and gave a kind of smirk. She thumped Mae on the forehead who fell backward. "Well, it's nice to see you smiling again, and hitting me on the head." Melanie laughed as Mae sat up again and rubbed the spot where Melanie hit her.

"Alright, come on. But I get to lead the way." Melanie quickly stood up with a little more energy in her voice.

Mae gave a theatrical bow and gestured towards the trees. "After you." The two girls laughed as they started making their way towards what they hoped was some kind of village.

-

"My lord, the experiment was a success. They will be able to walk in just a few moments." The two men looked down at the six shinobi laying on what resembled metal dissecting tables. The taller of the two walked around the tables to the three on the end.

"So, this is a success, is it?" Orochimaru looked at Kabuto from out of the corner of his eyes. "Tell me, why are these three not breathing?" Kabuto lowered his head. Orochimaru turned, squinting his eyes. "I believe I asked you a question. Well?"

Kabuto raised his head a little, still not meeting his master's eyes. "It seems that the elements that were to make up their chakra systems...well." Kabuto started to sweat as he stumbled over what to say next. Orochimaru was silent, waiting for him to continue. Kabuto closed his eyes and finished his sentence in a rush. "They disintegrated as soon as they were being fused into their bodies." Kabuto slowly opened his eyes.

Orochimaru studied the other three shinobi who had started to move. "Hmmm. Lightning, Metal and Fire, the most destructive of the elements." Kabuto cringed. "Don't worry Kabuto; you will have your chance to fix this. Give those names and some clothes. I'm sure that they can help you find the ones that have the elements that failed." Orochimaru walked away towards a door at the end of the room. In the darkness Kabuto could just make out the silhouette of another person with spiky hair leaning on the door frame.

Kabuto lifted his hand to his heart in a kind of salute. "Yes sir." He watched as the three surviving shinobi struggled to get off the tables. One by one they found their footing and stood in a line facing him. Kabuto pushed up his glasses and left through the door that he had entered, the others following him at a distance.

-

"I think I found something." Naruto and Kiba looked over at Neji; Neji released his Byakugan and stood up. He, Kiba and Naruto had been chosen to search for what Sakura and Hinata had summoned; something had happened that included Orochimaru so all the Anbu members had gone to investigate. They were standing on the edge of crater facing the forest; the sight of the summoning. Neji had been looking with his Byakugan while Kiba searched with his nose. Naruto was only there so he wouldn't annoy the Hokage.

Neji pointed to the left. "There are two sources of chakra in that direction," Neji pointed again, this time a little to the right. "And another one about to meet up with the first two." Kiba looked at Neji skeptically.

"Three? You'd think that if it took that much chakra to summon them, whatever they are, that they would only summon one." Kiba sighed and looked over at Naruto. Naruto just stood there with a curious look on his face.

"I wonder what they summoned anyway. The jutsu that they were using was supposed to summon their element." Naruto looked up at the sky with his hands behind his head in a relaxed way.

Neji stared at Naruto before continuing. "It doesn't matter. By the time we reach them they will have already met each other. There's no telling if they are other ninja or what we're looking for." Neji looked over at Kiba. "Kiba, you and Akamaru will go first, you'll circle around them and block their escape, Naruto and I will follow you and cover them from the front." Kiba and Naruto nodded; a little white dog at Kiba's feet barked as well.

At a nod from Neji they disappeared in a puff of smoke into the forest.

-

"I...am getting...really sick...of all these..." Sarah got whapped in the face as she bent back a branch. "...trees." She had been walking for a while now and still hadn't come across anything remotely alive, not even a bird. It was probably because of all the noise she was making, she wasn't all that good at hiking in the first place.

Sarah sighed and leaned against a nearby tree. _At this rate, I'll have to find a place to sleep._ She looked up at the sky to find that the sun was just dipping below the tops of the trees. She groaned and sank to the floor. "Man this sucks." Sarah closed her eyes and tried, yet again, to hear any kind of animal in the forest.

She was about to get up when she heard something coming from her left. _Okay that's either a very sick bird or people arguing....Wait, people! _Sarah quickly stood up and ran in the direction of the voices. _If any one's arguing, it's got to be Melanie and Mae!_ "Hold on guys, I'm coming! Try not to kill each other before I get there!" Sarah ran through the trees, braches scraping her already scratched arms.

Bursting through the trees she came across two girls walking in the opposite direction. As she came closer they turned around, surprised at seeing someone else in the forest with them. Sarah came to an abrupt halt as she noticed what they were wearing. _Alright Sarah, relax. If you're not wearing your clothes, there's a good chance that they aren't too. Plus, even if they aren't your friends then they probably saw them._

Sarah took a deep breath. "I'm sorry but, are you Melanie and Mae?" The two girls glanced at each other then back at her. At a nod from the brunette, the blonde girl rushed at Sarah mowing her down as she hugged her.

All three girls laughed as the two girls picked themselves off the ground the other brunette laughing as well. "Well, I guess that answers that question. Are you guys okay?" Mae nodded as Melanie made a weird face and pointed to their clothes. "Yeah, I noticed the wardrobe change. But did you guys find any clues as to where we are?"

Melanie sighed and shook her head no. Mae, on the other hand, raised her hand and feigned patience like she was at school. Sarah and Melanie looked at each other and said at the same time. "Yes Mae?"

Mae looked back and forth between her friends. "Do you guys practice or what? That's kinda creepy."

Sarah smiled at Melanie and they answered. "No." Melanie giggled at the confused face that Mae made as Sarah continued. "What did you want to say Mae?"

"Oh yeah, did you notice that we're all wearing shinobi shoes and weapon pouches like in Naruto?" Melanie and Sarah checked what Mae had said, awed and surprised. "What are the odds that we would end up in the Naruto world?"

Melanie sat on the ground, "Not very good. You're smarter than you look." Mae beamed down at Melanie, apparently not noticing the sarcasm in her voice.

Sarah sat down next to Melanie, followed by Mae, and tapped her finger on her chin. "What I want to know is why we're here. I mean, seriously!"

Mae opened her mouth only to shriek when they were suddenly surrounded by purple smoke. Sarah coughed in harmony with Melanie and Mae as she tried to wave away the smoke. She shouted as she felt someone grab her wrists and tie them behind her back. When she tried to stand up the person who had tied her wrists pushed her back down so that she was on her knees.

The smoke cleared and she gasped, coughing harder as she inhaled more smoke. Melanie was tied at the wrists and trying to cover her face as a little white dog barked at her, a brown headed guy in a hoody trying to smother his laughter behind his hand. Mae, on the other hand, was hog tied and eating dirt, another blonde kid holding her down with his foot, like in those Captain Morgan liquor commercials.

Sarah twisted around trying to get a look at who was holding her; she caught her breath as she recognized the pale purple eyes. It was Neji Hyuuga! Sarah turned back around slowly, her mind reeling. _No way! We really are in the Naruto world!_ She looked up again at the other two shinobi holding her friends. _Then that means that the others are Naruto and Kiba, that dog must be Akamaru._

Neji looked up from his prisoner and addressed the others. "Alright, let's head back." He bent to pick her up when he heard Kiba clear his throat. Sarah sighed with relief as Neji stood back up. "What is it?" He said, annoyance barely coming through in his voice.

"Are you sure these are the right ones? They don't look that intimidating." Kiba gestured to Melanie who was still trying to fend off the little dog.

Naruto nodded agreement and added, "They didn't put up much of a fight either." Sarah quickly gathered all her courage and tried to put on the most pathetic face she could before speaking up.

"Umm. Excuse me, but is there something we can help you with? My friends and I were just passing through, we didn't do anything wrong did we?" The ninjas heads all whipped around at the sound of her voice; making her wish that they couldn't hear the wavering in her voice.

"Man I hope not." Again the shinobi whipped around; making her wonder if they felt any whiplash. Mae had rocked herself into a kneeling position after Naruto had stepped away to talk to his friends.

Neji looked at her suspiciously before turning back to Sarah. "What is your name?" Sarah tried to think fast. She didn't know if she tell them their real names or try to make up new ones. Deciding to play safe, she made new ones that sounded more like Japanese names so they would think they were actually from this world.

"Well my name is...Mitsune; over there next to the dog is...Riku, and she's Emiko." Mae looked at Sarah quizzically. Sarah shook her head and looked from the shinobi and back to Mae. She seemed to understand as she nodded her head.

There was a tense silence as the shinobi decided on what to do a little ways away after tying the girls up at a nearby tree. Mae poked Sarah and gestured towards the ninja. She nodded and Mae leaned forward a bit, closing her eyes and putting her highly sensitive ears to work.

Sarah sidled over to Melanie and nudged her with her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" Melanie nodded and looked up at Kiba. She shuddered as she caught sight of Akamaru sitting on his head. "You know, this is the first time I've ever seen you so scared of a dog before."

Melanie smirked and looked over at Sarah, a haunted look in her eyes. "I think he smelt a Nikki's dog treat in my pocket. But that's not why I'm scared." She paused, starting to shake a little. "I just realized that if we're here, then we're not at home."

Sarah looked at her confused. "Of course we're not, we're here." Melanie shook her head and frowned.

"If we're here, and we don't know how; then we're not at home, and don't know how to get back." Sarah went wide eyed. Melanie nodded and looked up at the ski in a blank sort of way.

_I can't believe I didn't think of that! If we don't know how we got here, there's no way for us to get back. I wonder...I wonder how long it will take for everyone to realize we're gone. Mae's mom will notice when she goes to pick her up. Melanie's mom will know when she doesn't come back for dinner. My mom...she probably thinks that I'm spending the night at Melanie's house; but Melanie's mom doesn't know that's what my mom thinks... Which means my mom won't know I'm gone until Sunday._

"Man this sucks."

-

**Okay I admit that wasn't the most exciting thing ever written, but I'm proud that I got the villain and character changes got in! And to avoid any confusion, I'm going to use the characters Naruto names. In the next chapter I'll either let the three "experiments" enter or let my characters meet Lady Tsunade. I'm not sure, but either way there'll be a fight seen! HOORAY!**

**Wolf-girl-Artemis: omg, I can's believe were on the second chapter already, Yay, and most of the grammar mistakes will be mine because of the way my computer works, so gomen. I may be able to write part of the fight scene, only in my character's P.O.V(yay) and I am going to be posting a Tsubasa Fanfic soon (only a oneshot, but a kinda long one)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm really, really, really, really, really, really sorry! I've only gotten one review and the only thing they asked was that I update!! I feel so bad; I'm ashamed of myself. Anyways, here's the third chapter. I hope it's worth the wait; I tried to make it a little longer to make up for the long update wait. ENJOY!!**

**-**

Mitsune (Sarah; I'll be using their Naruto names as long as they're in the Naruto world, yes they will be going back; SPOILER ALERT! XD) wiggled back over to Emiko (Mae), who was still trying to overhear the three ninja's conversation. No one knew why, but for some reason she had freakishly good hearing. Mitsune poked her to get her attention and gestured over to the shinobi in silent question.

_What are they saying?_

Emiko leaned over to Mitsune's ear and whispered: "_They think that we're shinobi from another village, but their having a hard time figuring it out. I think it's because we don't have any headbands. What do you think we should do?"_ Emiko leaned forward again, listening to their conversation while she waited for an answer.

Mitsune groaned and leaned her head back against the tree that they were currently tied to. _How the heck should I know? It's not like we're actually capable of escaping. And if we did, they would just capture us again and then they would be even more suspicious. Plus, since I said we were just "passing through", they'll get even __more__ suspicious. ARGH! What the hell are we supposed to do?!_ She wiggled around, trying to get comfortable as something jammed into her side. _And what the heck is poking me?!_

Mitsune tried to look behind her while also trying to touch the offending object. Her fingers grazed something round and, what felt like, velvet that was attached to her hip. _Of course! The weapon pouches! If I can get one of the kunai out then we can cut the ropes! Not sure what to do after that but oh well._ She wiggled closer to Riku (Melanie) and whispered her plan into her ear.

She nodded and reached over to Mitsune's weapon pouch and teased it open. Mitsune held still as she heard the soft clinking of metal. _I wonder what's in there anyway. As long as it's not-_

Her train of thought was cut off as she felt Riku tense up. "_What is it?" _Mitsune whispered.

"_The only thing you have in here are needles! I don't think we can cut these ropes using senbon."_ Riku whispered back as she closed the weapon pack. Mitsune twisted her body around to check if any of the shinobi had noticed their movement.

Neji and Naruto were having some kind of argument while Kiba was playing with Akamaru. Mitsune leaned towards Emiko and whispered in her ear. "What are they saying?"

Emiko shook her head, still focusing on their conversation. "I don't know. I think they're still arguing about what to do with us." Mitsune sighed with relief as she turned back around to check Riku's weapon pack.

"_Bingo! I found a couple of shuriken. They're not knives but they'll do!" _Mitsune juggled the shuriken in her hand until she was able to get it in a position to cut the ropes. She had just gotten through the first coil when Emiko whisper/yelled.

"_**Freeze!**_" Riku and Mitsune froze and whipped around to look at Emiko. She was staring intently at the three shinobi who were also staring hard at something in the forest. Mitsune looked in the direction that the ninja were but couldn't see anything. She handed the shuriken in her hand to Riku and signaled her to keep cutting the ropes. She nodded and frantically started cutting; the sudden stillness slightly creeping her out.

"_What's happening?"_ Mitsune tried to keep her voice as low as possible as she felt Riku cut through another coil in the rope. _One more_.

"_I don't know. I think they may have seen something in the forest."_ Emiko turned to look at Mitsune, a haunted look on her face. _"Hey Mitsune, you ever wonder where we were, __exactly__?"_ Mitsune just kept looking at her, a blank look on her own face. _"Remember the __Chuunin Exams__?"_ Mitsune gasped while Emiko nodded to confirm her fears.

They were in the Forest of Death, the second test in the Chuunin Exams; and possibly the most dangerous. Full of deadly creatures and giant trees that blocked out the sun, not to mention the paths. No wonder she had such a hard time getting through the dense foliage. _Damn!! Man, now we really need to get out of here! There is no way that we can do this by ourselves! We're not ninja!_

A small part of Mitsune's mind that was still Sarah told her that they would have had a much better chance to stay with the _real_ ninja, so that they could protect them. She shook her head to make it shut up. If they stayed with Naruto, Neji and Kiba, there was a bigger chance of them finding out that they didn't belong in this world. Then who knows what would happen.

Mitsune let out a small sigh of relief when she felt the last coil of rope fall to the ground. As Riku put her shuriken away, Mitsune restrained Emiko from standing up. She gave her a funny look. Mitsune tilted her head towards the shinobi who were still engrossed in their surroundings. Emiko quirked her eyebrow as if to say 'now what?'.

Mitsune racked her brain. _Great, we're free with nowhere to go._ She looked around hoping for an idea to come to her. Riku poked her in the side to get her attention. She gestured toward the other side of the tree and started to slowly inch her way around the trunk. Mitsune mentally smacked herself in the head. _Duh._

Keeping an eye on the shinobi, the three inched their way to the other side of the tree, trying not to attract their attention. Once they made it to the other side, they got on their bellies and army crawled as quietly as they could towards the forest; hoping the shinobi hadn't noticed their disappearance. After they had made it to the tree line the continued to crawl until they were a little farther away. Keeping their backs to the clearing they silently sat against a couple of trees and whispered anxiously to each other.

_"What the heck do we do now? We escaped and now we don't even know what to do. And to make matters worse we're in the Forest of Death of all places! How the hell did we end up here?! I mean-" _Emiko was abruptly cut off as Riku clamped her hand over her mouth.

_"Why does 'Forest of Death' not sound so inviting?" _Riku asked while she struggled to keep her hand over Emiko.

_"The Forest of Death is the place where they hold part of the Chuunin Exams. It's really dangerous and we really shouldn't stay in one place so long." _Mitsune answered as she got up and started to walk towards what she hoped was the way to the river. She gained more confidence as she heard her friends catch up to her.

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_Shinobi POV_

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Neji tied the three foreign _ninja_ against a nearby tree and signaled for the others to come closer so that their conversation wouldn't be overheard. He had little doubt that these three were the...things...that Sakura and Hinata had summoned.

"So what should we do now? Wait for the Anbu to get here or let them go?" Neji looked at Kiba incredulously.

"We can't just 'let them go'! The whole reason we came out here was to find them and bring them back to the village." Neji took a longer look at Kiba. "You didn't really buy that story about 'just passing through'?"

Naruto looked back and forth between the two. "What do you mean? They seem honest enough. They could just be Nin from the Grass village. What makes you think that they're actually the...summonee's...that we're supposed to be looking for? They look like normal people to me." Naruto put his hands behind his head in a nonchalant way, waiting for an answer.

Neji sighed. "First, who would be 'just passing through' the Forest of Death? And second, I already told you. Their chakra signals are totally off." He looked out of the corner of his eye to see the brunette's whispering to each other, while the blonde looked like she was taking a nap. Neji continued in an even lower tone. "They don't have any chakra system. At all. Their chakra just over flows and fills up their entire body." Kiba's eyes widened. Naruto stared in confusion.

"I don't get it. Why is that so weird?" Neji stared hard at Naruto. "What?"

"Naruto, you should know about this more than us. Every time you use the Kyuubi's power, your chakra does the same thing." Naruto's face fell into seriousness as he remembered all those times when he had called on the Kyuubi for more power. "But what's weird about them is that they are missing some powerful emotion. No depression, malice or anger to fuel their chakra. Plus, this whole time nothing has changed, they're still pumping chakra, and they don't seem like they're tired at all."

Naruto's face looked confused again as he looked at the napping blonde. "But that one looks like she's asleep." Neji shook his head.

"No, I think she's trying to listen to our conversation." Neji frowned as he noticed that Kiba was no longer paying any attention and was instead playing with Akamaru. _I'd expect something like that from Naruto, but not Kiba._ Neji sighed.

"How can they hear us? We're so far away and we're talking really soft." Naruto lowered his voice for dramatic effect. Neji sighed again, exasperated.

"It doesn't matter, we need figure out if we should wait for the Anbu Black Ops. or not. It's dangerous here and I don't think I can stand protecting these three _imposter ninja_."

Naruto smirked. Neji stared suspiciously at him. "Heh, I didn't think you were that weak Neji. Don't worry, I can protect them." Neji glared daggers at Naruto (who could practically see them flying out of his eyes). Naruto gulped,_ maybe weak was the wrong word._

"Hn, you mean like how you protected Hinata?"

**(This didn't really happen but in my story it did. Hinata and Naruto where on a date and some random Hinata fan boy came running down the road and almost tramples her. When Naruto tried to protect her by pushing her out of the way, he accidently pushed her into a garbage can that just 'happened to be there'. Like I said, this didn't really happen but, NOW IT DID XD!! On with the story!)**

Naruto turned red with embarrassment. Kiba laughed and Naruto ignored him, too busy having a kunai fight with Neji with their invisible eye knives. "THAT WAS A FREAK ACCIDENT! I WOULD NEVER HURT HINATA!" Neji was about to yell back, something that involved a long winded speech about fate and how Naruto would always be destined to be a freak, when Kiba suddenly stood up and clapped a hand over Naruto's mouth.

"What is it?" Neji whispered as he activated his Byakugan. Kiba held a finger up to his lips to signal quiet and sniffed in the general area in front of them. Beside him, Akamaru was doing the same thing. After a few more seconds of tense waiting Akamaru's tail went up and he barked towards a place a little to their left in the opposite direction of the village.

Kiba took his hand away from Naruto's mouth and whispered, "We've got company." Naruto froze and looked around (as if he could actually see anything). Neji mentally sighed and activated his Byakugan.

He scanned the area that Akamaru had barked in. Naruto and Kiba waited anxiously for a report when he dropped his hands to his sides. "There are three more ninja coming from the north. I can't tell what country they're from but they're closing in fast. We need to get those three girls to our village as quickly as possible." At this Naruto's face got very serious. Neji noticed but continued. "Kiba, you and Akamaru will stay here and help me hold them off so that Naruto can get the girls out of here."

Kiba nodded and Akamaru barked again and jumped into the trees, readying for the attack. "Uhh, Neji. We have a little problem." Neji grimaced. He could almost guess what he was about to say. "You know those three girls that we tied up earlier?" Neji braced himself and nodded. "Well..."

Naruto was cut off as Kiba shouted. "HEY! THE GIRLS ARE MISSING!!" Neji smacked himself in the head at his idiocy. How could they have escaped; they were only ten feet away from them!

Naruto looked at Neji with concern. "You know if you keep hitting yourself like that you're going to lose IQ points." Neji heard Kiba snigger as he had Akamaru sniff the tree that the girls were tied to only minutes before.

Neji walked over to Kiba an irritated look on his face as Naruto nursed his new melon sized bump. "You find anything?" Akamaru took a few more sniffs before he barked what sounded like an answer to Kiba. Neji kept an eye on the trees while Kiba answered.

"Their scent is still pretty strong. They can't have gotten far." Kiba bent down and picked up the rope that had been cut, frowning to himself. "It looks like it was cut with a kunai." Neji frowned also, Naruto was still nursing his huge bump. _They cut the rope? Why didn't they use an escape jutsu? _His eyes narrowed as he caught something shining on the ground.

He leaned down to get a closer look. "What's this?" It was a small, pink, rectangular, metal...thing. Kiba and Naruto (who apparently got over his head injury) leaned over Neji shoulders. He twirled the thing in his hands, totally perplexed. It was so tiny it could fit in the palm of his hand, and yet, it had an aura of great importance. Kiba's voice broke him out of his trance.

"Umm, shouldn't we be going after them? Or at least preparing for whatever is coming?" Neji shook his head and put the strange thing in his pocket.

"R...Right. Naruto you go and catch up to the girls. If they don't cooperate, capture them again and take them to Lady Tsunade." Naruto fake saluted and ran off into the trees, cloning himself into thirds on the way. Neji looked over at Kiba.

He nodded and reached into his pocket. "Here Akamaru." Kiba pulled a small pellet out of his pocket and fed it to Akamaru. After a few seconds of tense chewing Akamaru turned a weird shade of red, his hair prickling up all over his body. "Ready?"

Kiba nodded. "Ready."

"Byakugan!"

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_Girls' POV_

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"Okay, this place is really starting to freak me out. Was it always this dark?" Emiko looked around half expecting something to pop out and eat her.

"Calm down. We just need to find the river we were following earlier and we'll be able to find a village or something." Riku said matter-of-factly, pushing branches out of her way. Mitsune looked at Riku with wonder. Just a few minutes ago she was freaking out over the fact that they were in some place called the 'Forest of Death'. **(Riku/Melanie doesn't know that much about the Naruto world, so she'll be freaking out periodically.)** Now she was calmly making her way through the trees like it was her own backyard.

On the other hand, Emiko, the self-proclaimed Naruto expert was practically shivering with fright. _I guess ignorance is bliss._ Mitsune caught Riku looking over at Emiko with a satisfied smirk on her face. _Or Riku's just enjoying the fact that she's so scared._ Mitsune anime sweat dropped at how evil her friend was.

"Ow! My hair!" Mitsune looked over at Emiko to see that one of her ridiculously long ponytails had caught on a sticker bush. She pulled as hard as she could but she only made it worse. "Help?" Mitsune hastily wiped off her grin at how funny this situation was.

Mitsune rolled her eyes and walked over to help, saying over her shoulder. "Hang on, Emiko's been captured by a sticker bush." Riku stopped and looked back almost doubling over with laughter.

"I can't believe you got caught by a bush!" Emiko turned red as Riku continued to laugh. By the time Mitsune had managed to untangle her hair, Riku was practically rolling on the floor in laughter.

Taking advantage of the situation, Emiko playfully kicked her in the stomach. "It's not funny! I'm just not used to so much hair." Emiko flipped one of her abnormally long ponytails over her shoulder and continued walking.

"Yeah, well. You're not the only one with problems. This hair is so short, I feel light headed just sitting here." Mitsune walked over to Riku and pulled her to her feet and followed after Emiko, Riku right beside her. "You know, you're lucky Mitsune. Your outfit isn't as remotely revealing as ours."

"Heh, I guess I did get lucky." Mitsune pushed her hair out of her face and walked ahead to catch up with Emiko.

"Whoops, I think I may have spoken too soon." Mitsune looked back to find that Riku was covering her mouth and pointing at her back.

"What are you...?" Mitsune turned around and pulled her hair away from her back to find...that there was a giant hole in the back of her dress. The hole was so big that her entire back was bare. "Oh that's great." She sighed, trying to block out Riku's and Emiko's giggles. "At least my hair is long enough to cover it."

"Hey, I think I hear the river." The two girls walked over to where Emiko was pointing to find the river quietly flowing towards a setting sun.

"Wow, your hearing really is good." Emiko grinned at the praise. Rarely did Riku say anything to her that wasn't taunting her or pointing out her...randomness.

"We better hurry up, the sun is setting; and if those guys are any good at their job, then they'll be here soon." Riku and Emiko saluted (Emiko hitting herself a little harder than needed) and started running down the riverbank trying not to slip on the loose rocks.

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_Naruto's POV_

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Naruto sped through the trees, hopping from branch to branch. One of his clones came up on his right, the other on his left. The clone on the right shook his head no, the other jumped closer and reported.

"They didn't go left." The original Naruto nodded and gritted his teeth. _Neji said that they have chakra systems like the Kyuubi, does that mean that they have demons inside them too?_ Naruto picked up his pace a little at the idea. _If they do, then those other ninja might be after them; who are those girls?_

"Hey look!" The Naruto clone on the right pointed towards the direction of the river and landed next to a big oak tree surrounded by stickerbushes. "Look!" The clone held up an extremely long clump of hair.

"It's them!" All the Naruto clones yelled at once, and simultaneously ran at top speed along the river.

"Almost there!" Naruto said to himself. _What's that?_ Something that looked like a wall made of rocks loomed in front of him. Before he realized it, he found himself face down on the riverbed.

From somewhere above him a cold voice rung out over the quiet river. "You're in the way." Naruto's clones poofed, and disappeared. That fall had knocked more out of him than he thought. He struggled to lift his head to find the owner of the voice.

A tall figure was calmly walking away towards the village, and the girls.

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_Neji's POV_

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_huff huff huff_

_Who are these guys?!_

"That was fun! We should do this again sometime." Neji was too worn out to tell which of the two enemy ninja was leaning over him. They had come out of nowhere and practically took them out in less than two minutes. In the fight he had lost sight of Kiba and Akamaru. He could only hope that they were o.k.

"Fun? I had to fight a little kid and a dog. That's not really my idea of a good time." This time the voice came from behind him. It sounded low and cocky to Neji's ears; much different from the almost boyish and playful one that was talking before.

"Aww, you didn't think that was fun? Come on, I'm sure brother has found them by now. I bet they will be much harder to fight." Neji heard footsteps walking away in the direction that Naruto had gone.

"Hmph. I didn't even get to fight full strength."

_WHAT!?_

**Like I said, I'm really really really really really really sorry!! My Microsoft Word was being a spaz and stopped working! I couldn't write anything! The good part is that I had time to think of new stuff that's going to happen later in the story. I really look forward to writing this one part where-**

**NO NO NO NO! I will not give away the end of the story and you can't make me!! Anyways, in the next chapter there is definitely going to be a fight scene. I mean, what's a Naruto fic without a fight!?**

**See you next time, and remember to review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Yaaaaaaaay!!! A new chapter!!! I'm really looking forward to this one. It is my first try at a fight scene!! I really like reading those on other peoples' stories, so now I get to try!! Now remember, this is my first story ****and**** fight scene so be nice, if and when you review. ON WITH THE STORY!!**

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_Mitsune's POV_

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"Hey, I think I see a fence!" Mitsune and Emiko looked forwards through the trees to see a fifteen foot tall chain link fence. "Quick! We need to get over the fence before those boneheads catch up to us!" Mitsune poured on a little more juice and leaped onto the fence.

"Don't you mean metal heads?" Riku added as she jumped on as well. She started to climb hand over hand passing Mitsune up in under 5 seconds.

"Whatever, I just don't want them to land on me. Those things looked heavy!" Emiko stopped under the other two girls before jumping straight up.

Since leaving the Konoha shinobi the girls had run into some strange enemies. Faceless metal puppets had shown up out of nowhere and started to attack them. It was all they could do to out run them without getting hit. Whenever they thought they had finally outrun the monsters they sprang up out of the ground and trees to start chasing them all over again.

_Almost to the top! You know, now that I think about it, if we're running from metal puppets, why are we on a metal fence?.......Oh shit!_

"Hurry! Everyone, let go of the fence!" Mitsune pushed off of the fence and landed on the ground, her knees buckling underneath her to land on her butt.

"Why?" Mitsune looked up to find Riku looking back at her while Emiko continued to climb up. She had just reached the top of the fence and was about to drop down to the other side.

"GET OFF THE FENCE!!!" Riku immediately let go of the fence to fall beside Mitsune. But Riku's sudden movement unbalanced Emiko who fell on her head on the other side of the fence. Mitsune and Riku stared at Emiko. She had just fallen fifteen feet on her head to solid ground.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. My heads as hard as diamonds. See?" Emiko picked herself off the ground and knocked on her head a few times. Mitsune shook her head in annoyance/relief.

"Why'd you want us to get off the fence?" Mitsune looked up at the fence with apprehension. What was going on? All through the forest the creatures had come out of everything and anything to try and chase them. But, they never actually went in front of them. Were they actually forcing them to go this way? But then they would appear on the fence just like before, except they would be trapped. And yet they hadn't. _Ugh, this is so confusing!!!_

Emiko waved frantically trying to get their attention. Riku noticed first and spun around. Standing behind them were even more metal men, but this time they had wickedly pointed spears.

"This isn't good." Riku muttered. Mitsune rolled her eyes. _Ya think?_ Out of the corner of her eyes she could see that Emiko had backed away from the fence. When she had gotten far enough away she ran until Mitsune couldn't see her if she wanted to keep her eye on the slowly approaching metal puppets.

_Did she just do what I think she did?!_

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_Riku's POV_

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_Not good Not good Not good Not good!! Aww, man! What are we gonna do! We don't have anywhere to run, Emiko just ran away (traitor) and we don't have any weapons. If I just had some kind of sword I could kick their butts!!_

Riku looked over at Mitsune, even though she was shaking in fear, Mitsune looked calm and relaxed.

_How can she do that? Wait, I wonder, DOES SHE HAVE A PLAN!!?_

Looking hopefully at Mitsune, Riku hurriedly tried to steady herself. If Mitsune had a plan, it probably included her; and she needed to be prepared if she had to do any quick thinking. Riku targeted the metal puppets as they crept closer, trying to keep Mitsune in the corner of her eyes to catch any kind of signal that she might send.

After a whole minute Mitsune still hadn't moved and the metal puppets had come within striking range. The puppet closest to them raised his spear to strike. She was about to shout when she saw the signal.

Mitsune's eyes quickly flicked to Riku, blinked twice then looked over her shoulder. Then she clenched her fists and whipped out three senbon needles. With a flick of her wrist Mitsune sent the needles flying into the puppets face. Unfortunately, her aim was off and one of the needles missed it's mark. Mitsune clenched her fists and nodded once before jumping onto the puppet.

_Way to go Mitsune! Now it's my turn._

Pivoting on her right foot Riku turned around to find what Mitsune had gestured to. Growing next to the fence was a thick patch of bamboo stalks. Grabbing the thickest branch she could Riku tried to rip it from the ground.

_Ugh! It's too tough! I can't get it free! Well, if Mitsune can jump into the fray like she did then I can break this stupid twig!_

Riku held onto the top part of the branch and broke it with one shot from her other hand. Without thinking about what she had just done Riku spun around to meet the rest of the metal men. At the same moment Mitsune threw two more needles into the arm joint of yet another metal puppet, causing it to drop its spear. Riku rushed over and stood back to back to her.

"So, how many did you kill?" Riku joked looking at the aggravated puppets.

"Oh, you know, just a couple." Looking at the small pile of metal bodies Riku giggled. The pile had at least six puppets stacked on it.

"Well, now it's my turn to have a little fun." Mitsune grabbed her arm for a second and switched her spear for Riku's new staff.

"Sorry, I'd just feel better with a normal staff. I'm not good with spears." Riku smiled maniacally and shook her spear in the air.

"Doesn't bother me. CHARGE!!!!" Riku sprang into the air to dodge Mitsune's staff as she swung it close to the ground to trip close standing puppets to the floor. As she landed Riku shoved the end of her staff into another puppet.

_Wow, that was easy._ Riku giggled evilly, _This could be fun._

------------------------------------

_Mitsune's POV_

------------------------------------

_What the heck is going on!? They just keep coming! Where's Emiko when you need her?_

Mitsune took a deep breath and began to twirl her staff. By now the metal puppets had figured out that she was pretty good with her weapon. Patiently, Mitsune spun her staff faster and faster, waiting for one of the braver puppets to come closer. Cautiously, two of the puppets came closer on either side of her.

Bracing for impact, Mitsune used the momentum of the spinning and swung the staff horizontally into the stomach of the first puppet. Without losing a beat she spun in a circle and whacked the second puppet in the head. The head went flying towards the fence.

_Well that was cool. I wonder if I can do that again...No, not now. I need to help Riku. There's no way we can beat all these metal men by ourselves. We need to find the gate to this fence._

Glaring menacingly at the puppets Mitsune cast around for Riku. She spotted the top half of a puppet go flying and went toward it.

_Wow, she's good. Just look at her go._

Mitsune was amazed at the ferocity with which Riku attacked the monsters. Without stopping she would slash one puppet, then slice three others' legs off with the tip of her spear. Every now and then she would jump in the air and stab another through the head, just to dice another two standing nearby. Though Riku never let up her attack, Mitsune could tell that she was getting tired. She was starting to slow down and her strikes were losing a little of their power. Mitsune rushed over and pressed her back against Riku's.

"Mitsune! I can't keep this up! There's just too many." Riku yelled over the grating of the metal puppets. It seemed as though they had noticed that they were tiring. Stepping forward she skewered one and whipped him off onto another one.

"I know, neither can I! We need to make our way to the gates! Come on, this way!" Mitsune pulled Riku slightly to make her face right. With a mighty swing Mitsune whacked five of the metal puppets away and sprinted through the opening followed closely by Riku.

They hadn't gone far when they ran into a giant gate. Unlike the rest of the fence the gate was made of iron bars. Unfortunately for them, the gates were locked with a thick chain.

"Riku, do you think you can break through that chain?" Mitsune yelled over her shoulder as she took up a defensive position in front of Riku and the gates.

"I'll do my best, but I don't think I can." Mitsune nodded her head without looking back as Riku faced the gates. The metal puppets started to get closer as Riku took a deep breath and released it slowly. The puppets began to charge as Riku took an even deeper breath, closed her eyes and raised her spear. As the puppets gained speed Riku lined up the tip of the spear with the chain.

As the sounds of Mitsune's staff hitting metal met her ears Riku struggled to keep her concentration. Opening her eyes with a snap Riku slashed at the chain as hard and as fast has she could. It was a powerful swing but still the chain held.

"I can't do it! We're trapped!" Riku yelled back to Mitsune who was in the middle of the mob of monsters. Leaping into the fray Riku desperately tried to reach her friend. But for every puppet she cut down four more popped out of nowhere. For every second that passed Mitsune grew farther and farther apart.

Meanwhile, Mitsune was getting weaker. Every jab and swipe of her staff caused her pain as it made contact with the hard metal puppets.

_What are these things made of? It can't be steel, it's way too hard for that. Iron? No, too shiny...yet it's not._

Mitsune watched transfixed as a rainbow of colors swirled on the surface of the metal man. She was hypnotized. The enemy that she was staring at took that opportunity to swipe at her midsection.

"AAAHH!" Mitsune clutched at her stomach. She felt detached, as if the pain didn't really belong to her. All she could see was red, lots and lots of red.

_Blood. That's what that is. Is it mine? Yes, probably._

Mitsune could faintly hear someone call her name.

_Who's that? Do I know them? What are they so worried about? I'm fine, I can still fight._

On shaky feet Mitsune pushed herself up off the ground to face the metal army. Mitsune raised her staff at the puppet in front of her, only to have her vision go fuzzy. Feeling herself tilt to the left, she tried to straighten herself, but she over compensated and flung herself into another puppet. A horrible creaking and grating met her ears in what could only be described as the metal mans laugh. His laughter grew louder as he slapped her across the face flinging her onto the ground once more.

Mitsune's head spun. She just couldn't focus anymore. Everything was spinning, blending all the colors into one. Again she heard someone yell out her name. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness, was a dark figure sitting among the top branches of the trees.

--------------------------------

_Riku's POV_

--------------------------------

"Mitsune! Hang on!" Riku jumped onto a metal mans shoulder slammed the butt of the spear into his shoulder causing him to collapse. Before she could fall to the ground she jumped to the next puppet and did the same to him. She continued this routine until she could finally see Mitsune.

She was standing there; just standing there staring at a puppet. What was she doing?

_Come on Mitsune, snap out of it! You have to keep moving! Don't give up!_

Riku picked up the pace as she saw Mitsune go down. Panicked, Riku lost her footing and fell to the ground as well. Rolling along on the floor, she dodged more than one spear aimed her way. Flicking our her leg she tripped one of the puppets and decapitated him in an instant.

_I need to reach Mitsune! Damn it Emiko! Where are you!!_

Swinging her spear around her like she had seen Mitsune do, she hacked off the legs of the puppets nearest to her. Standing up again Riku looked desperately around for Mitsune, but she was nowhere to be found. Twirling the spear menacingly, she tried again to find her friend.

_This is hopeless! I need help._

All of a sudden, she hear something strange. Not like the sound of the metal men, but something sweeter. Something clear and piercing could be heard over all the sounds in the forest. The sound then changed pitch again and again to form a melody. The melody sent shivers of happiness and purity through Riku. She had never heard anything like it before.

She watched in amazement as some of the metal men stopped and dropped their spears. As the song grew louder and more complex more and more of the puppets stopped and dropped their weapons, then they actually collapsed to the floor.

_What's happening? This song is so comforting. Who's playing it?_

Mitsune temporarily forgotten, Riku cast about for the source of the beautiful sound. Up on the top of the fence stood a person with what looked like a flute. As she watched the person jumped off of the fence and walked towards Riku, the music never faltering.

_Emiko! She's back! Thank god!_

Riku rushed towards her but she shook her head. With a trill of her flute Emiko tilted her head towards a cluster of still standing puppets. Among the puppets was Mitsune. Nodding her head, Emiko began to walk forward towards her as Riku dashed ahead shouting her name. When she reached her she bit her tongue. Mitsune's blue dress was stained with her own blood.

"Oh my god, MITSUNE!! Mitsune wake up! Come on speak to me! Please!" Riku slid her hand underneath Mitsune's head and lifted it onto her lap. On her cheek was a bright red hand print from where the puppet had slapped her. Ignoring the blood seeping from her wound, Riku waited until Emiko had come closer.

When Emiko caught sight of the wound, her song came to an abrupt halt. All the color drained from her face as she lowered her flute.

"Is she...all right?" She asked haltingly. Riku nodded her head slowly and looked back up at her with tears in her eyes. They had come so close. So close to losing her.

Pulling herself together, Riku lifted Mitsune up and supported her with her shoulder. "Come on, we need to get her to the village or she'll bleed to death." Emiko nodded her head and followed behind her to the gate.

"Shit! I forgot, it's still locked!" Riku carefully handed Mitsune over to Emiko who struggled to hold onto her as well as her flute. Grabbing a new spear, Riku repeatedly hacked at the chain. After every blow the chink in the metal grew larger, until she finally broke through. With shaking hands Riku pulled the chain from the gate and let the lock fall to the ground.

Handing Mitsune back to Riku, Emiko began to play her flute again. Unlike the song that she had played before, this new song was filled with sadness and hope. With each note Riku's strength came back to her until she could hold Mitsune up without slouching. Soon even the color came back to Mitsune's face, but she did not wake up. Though the others were getting stronger with each note that she played Emiko's strength ebbed away.

Yet she took the pain with dignity, she had abandoned her friends and this is how things had ended up. She could have stayed, she could have fought. Yet she ran. The only good thing that came out of it was her home made bamboo flute. Though she couldn't understand how it had happened. As soon as she had played the first note she knew that it had some kind of power.

"Well, this sure isn't going to be easy." Emiko remarked. Riku paused and gave a little smirk.

_At least I'll have something to put on my resume for English now._

---------------------------

_???? POV_

---------------------------

"Aww, they got away! I was hoping that they would play with us a little more. That one who used the spear was kinda cute." The shinobi smiled as he watched her limp away with her wounded partner. It was very enjoyable to watch them fight. They had done much better than he expected for first timers.

"Hey Rai-tan, don't you think that was fun? Oh! I mean, before they hypnotized your puppets. It's amazing that they could defeat them so easily." He looked over at his older brother. He was scowling as usual, though maybe now he looked a little more out of it than normal.

"Oh shut up you. It's not my fault. I didn't let them hypnotize my puppets. I lost control. Besides, it's not gentleman like to hurt a girl. Especially one as cute as the blonde." The younger brother smiled wider as his older brother smirked for a nanosecond before frowning in the girls' direction again.

"So, you just lost control did you? Not polite to hit a girl is it? Then why, may I ask, did you hit the girl in blue?" A chill went up the brothers' spines. Apparently their eldest brother had been watching them play with the girls. The boy looked to his other brother in fear.

"I...uh...well, you see, when she played that flute of hers I lost control of my puppets, you see." His brother began to stutter as the elder brother's eyes narrowed. "And, well, the other girl, she was, you know, getting on my nerves. She was going to break anyway, so I thought I'd teach her a lesson, like, not to mess with my pu-" He stopped abruptly as their brother stood up and walked towards them. He was still a good ways away, but his presence filled the space between them like a thick fog.

"If you ever touch her again, I will personally see to it that you are never able to walk again. Understood?" Though he was looking at the middle child, the younger one nodded her head as well. It would not do to make the elder sibling upset. Among the three, he was their Lord's favorite. "Now, we have our orders. We need to follow them where ever they go." He paused, stealing a glimpse of the still unconscious girl before she disappeared beyond the gates. "Go."

The other two siblings nodded once before racing off towards the village.

"Mitsune." The last sibling stood there for a while longer before running after his younger brothers. _What a beautiful name, even if it is fake._

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**A/N: I'M SOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't mean for it to be this long before I updated! I just, you know, got bored? AAARRRGGHH!! WHAT A HORRIBLE EXCUSE! Trust me, I'll update sooner than this time! I promise! Just please say that you'll at least be patient with me? Please?**

**Laurana Linore: Konichiwa!!! WOOT! Finally, chapter 4 is up! I'm the co-editor of this fanfic, because apparently the original editor wasn't doing too good of a job. *cough* WolfGirl *cough* So yeah! I'm also the third OC!!! XD Bet you can't guess which one I am!! *sees cat licking at Raman* AAAHH!!! NO BAD KITTY! MY RAMAN! *steals the bowl of Raman from the cat***

**Cat: Meow?**

**Laurana: *HISS***

**Cat: *runs away frightened***

**Laurana: So anyways, *takes a bite of Raman* that's all I wanted to say! *runs into a random pole on her way out***


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Okay, time to start chapter five. Good news, I took some time to actually think about where I wanted this story to go and what I wanted to happen. This far I've only been daydreaming and who knows what my twisted mind might come up with next. No good that's what. Any who, let's get back to the action!! (or maybe not, the fight scenes over now, hope you enjoy anyway!)**

**--------**

_Darkness, never ending darkness. No sound, no light, no feeling. Nothing. I know I'm in a dream, but I can't escape. The darkness is suffocating, yet I can't take a breath. It is in my mouth, but I cannot taste it. It fills me, and I am nothing. Hope is leaving me, for what can possibly break through this unending nothingness?_

_And yet I can see the light. It is not the light of heaven as one might expect, nor the light of lamps that I wish it were. It is simply a lightening of color. The nothingness that surrounds me slowly turns black, then a bruised purple. Until suddenly it is a bright and colorful blue. The blue grows until it has become a sea. For that is what it is. A warm and gentle sea that I can breathe. _

_Because this is a dream after all. But it is a dream like no other. I can taste the salt in the water, feel the currents lifting me up. Yet no water strangles me through suffocation as the darkness had. As I come closer and closer towards the surface I come face to face with a wooden wall._

_Though my mind wishes to investigate the wall my body is ever moving towards the surface. The wall bends and curves along with me until I finally break the surface of the water. The wall continues to form the shape of a wooden lamb._

_Looking around I understand. The wall was a boat, the lamb a decoration on the bow. As my body rises higher and higher I strain my neck for a look at the crew._

_There is someone with a bandana and goggles hammering away at the main mast making repairs. Another crewman covered in brown hair and sticks poking out of his head is assisting him._

_Two girls are sunbathing on the deck as yet two more crew members appear from below deck. One girl has short red hair while the other has long blue hair. The two sailors that popped out are making their way towards them carrying trays that look to have food on them._

_My body is going faster now. I can't get a better look at the other two with the trays. I'm losing myself in the clouds. I glimpse one last person on the strange ship before I completely disappear._

_A person with very short green hair and three swords is sitting in the crow's nest, staring with wide eyes right at me._

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"O.K. Lee, tell me exactly what happened all right? It's very important that you don't leave anything out."

"Yes Hokage-sama! Yoush! I was just finishing my daily 10,000 pushups and was beginning my 200,000 crunches. On my 529 crunch I heard music coming from the Forest of Death."

Tsunade looked at Lee questioningly but did not interrupt. Looking straight ahead Lee continued his report.

"I decided to take a look to see what was going on...

-

_Lee walked over to where the music was coming from. Looking behind a tree he was surprised to find three girls coming straight from the Forest of Death. Getting a closer look he discovered that one girl was supporting another who was apparently unconscious while the one who was playing the flute was limping. The girl that was supporting the other looked o.k. to him except for a few scratches here and there._

_'I wonder which village they are from. They don't look like they are from ours.' As the girls walked closer Lee was able to get a good look at their clothes. Two of the girls' clothes were torn in places as if from a recent battle. The thirds was just slightly rumpled._

_Lee couldn't distinguish anything from their clothes. They were each based on a different color: red, blue and black. If anything, he could only say that either they were just traveling merchants or from completely different villages. Then again, they were dressed like shinobi so maybe they were protecting something and got lost._

_As the girls pulled up alongside his tree Lee got suspicious. None of the girls were wearing shinobi headbands. Lee was about to go back to the village and report that three strangers were coming to the gates when he saw the girls wound. A horrible gash stretching across her stomach._

_'Yoush! I cannot leave these girls here! A shinobi always helps those in need!' Lee jumped out behind the tree and shouted at the girls. _

_"Hey! Are you alright?" The girl playing the flute stumbled and abruptly stopped playing to stare wide eyed at him. The other girl spun around to face him. She held her friend to her closely and put her hand on her weapons pouch. Apparently not noticing her friends hostility, the flute player rushed towards him a giant smile on her face._

_"Lee! Am I glad to see you! Please, can you help us? My friend is hurt! Can you take us to the village?" Without letting his smile drop Lee nodded his head and yelled. _

_"Yoush! With my mighty power of youth I shall carry this girl to safety! Follow me!" Sweeping past the other two girls Lee gently pulled the third girl into his arms and carried her bridal style towards the village. "So, how did you know my name?" Lee was really suspicious now that the girl had called him by name. He couldn't remember meeting these girls before at all._

_"W-Well, we recognized you by your clothes! Your dressed just like Guy-sensei! He came right through our village one year and showed all of us kids a few moves before moving on." The blonde girl smiled hugely while the other girl glared at her._

_"Wow! You guys were really lucky to have met Guy-sensei before! I guess it is kind of obvious that I'm Guy-sensei's pupil. Well any way, you guys know my name but I don't know yours."_

_"Oh yeah! Sorry, my name is...Emiko, this is Riku," Emiko gestured to the hostile looking girl beside her. Riku kept alternating from glaring at him to glaring at Emiko to looking worriedly at the other girl. "and that is Mitsune." Emiko's voice dropped as she said the third girls name. Lee could hear the sadness in her voice and looked down at Mitsune's injury. It wasn't so much as it was a deep wound that it was a large wound._

_"I hope she's going to be alright." Before Lee could ask who had attacked them the village gates came into view and the two girls rushed ahead followed by Lee and the now sleeping girl. 'At least she's sleeping now. I wonder where these girls came from.'_

-

"After we went through the gates the other two girls wouldn't answer any of my questions. They were too busy looking at the village. When we got to the hospital they looked to worried about their friend, so I didn't ask any more. And that's it Hokage-sama."

Tsunade stared at the opposite wall before looking back at Lee. "All right, you are dismissed." Before Lee could walk out of her office she said. "Oh, and can you do me a favor and tell Sakura and Hinata that they could leave the hospital now?" Lee's face brightened at the thought of seeing Sakura again and nodded before rushing out of the room.

Tsunade leaned back and sighed. All this excitement was making her tired. 'I wonder where Naruto and the others have gotten to.'

"Shizune! Go get Kakashi! Tell him I have a mission for him." Tsunade could just hear Shizune answering before she fell asleep at her desk.

--------

"D?"

"Nope, that's a leg! Only one more mistake and you lose!"

Mitsune blinked and tried to open her eyes. She blinked again before realizing that she was in an almost completely white room. 'Hmmm, white room and that awful medicine smell. Must be in a hospital.' Mitsune cringed as she tried to sit up. Her stomach was in one piece but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt. She could just remember somebody carrying her into the room and then someone else was wrapping bandages around her stomach.

Looking around for the voices that were speaking Mitsune spotted two other girls in the room. 'Who are...' Mitsune jumped as she remembered what happened earlier. Though they didn't look like it those other two girls were her best friends.

"S?" Riku guessed. Emiko smiled and filled in the letter on the white board that was on the wall.

"Yep, one S." Riku groaned.

"Oh come on, give me another hint, which movie is this song in?"

Emiko giggled before answering. "Lion King." She giggled some more as Riku groaned again.

Mitsune squinted at the white board. They were playing hangman and Riku had managed to get all of the vowels and a couple of consonants. Altogether it looked like this:

I'_e / _o_ / a / _o_e_ _ / _u_c_ / o_ / coco_u_ s

It took Mitsune a few seconds before she got it. "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts?" Riku whipped around with a surprised look on her face before it broke into a wide grin. Jumping up from her chair she hugged her trying not to hit her wound.

"Awww, how did you guess? I was sure that you wouldn't get it." Emiko filled in the letters that would make up the song title. Emiko looked back to find that Riku and Mitsune were grinning evilly at her. Emiko smiled and pretended to be mad at them. "Hey no fair! You had help!" Taking the eraser Emiko started to wipe off their game of hang man.

"Well it's not my fault, since when has that song been in the Lion King? I don't remember it at all." Riku sat on the edge of Mitsune's bed and folded her arms in fake anger.

"Hmph, well I remember it, Zazu was singing it when he was captured by Scar." Mitsune smiled at Emiko who joined in.

"Yeah, at first he was singing 'Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows my sorrow'." Emiko sang the song like she was really depressed which made Riku giggle.

Mitsune interrupted with her best impression of Scar. "Oh come on Zazu sing something more happy." Emiko made a face and started singing again.

"It's a small world after all, it's.." Mitsune broke in again, stopping her from singing.

"No, no! Anything but that." Then with twin smiles on their faces Emiko and Mitsune sang together.

"Oh I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, there they are standing in a row! Big ones small ones, some as big as your head. Give a small flick of the wrist and that's what the shaman said!" All three girls burst out into laughter as the song ended. Soon the laughter died away as they were reminded of the movie and all the memories of home that it brought.

"Do you...think that we'll ever get back?" Mitsune looked over at Emiko. Usually so hyper and happy, she looked depressed and defeated.

"I'm not sure." Emiko looked up and saw what Mitsune saw in her. Riku looked between her two friends and attempted to change the subject.

"Mitsune, we need to come up with a story. I'm sure whoever is in charge here will come soon and start to ask us questions, like who we are, where we come from." Riku stressed that last question. She knew that telling the shinobi who they were could be dangerous but actually telling them something else frightened her. She wasn't a really good liar, as soon as she lied she started to smile a little more than usual. Riku also knew that Emiko couldn't lie by the way she giggled when she tried to tell her that the people in this town where cannibals. _Idiot._

Mitsune nodded, then laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking. "Well, we can't say that we are ninja from a different country because we don't have headbands. We can't say that we are normal citizens because we're dressed like ninja." Mitsune thought for a few more seconds while the other two sat in tense silence.

"Can we say that we are performers of some kind?" Mitsune looked over at Riku. Fidgeting a little she continued. "I mean, we're dressed funny, we don't know that much about ninja stuff, well at least I don't, and I'm sure that can explain what we're doing here." Mitsune smiled and nodded.

"That's a good idea. But we still need to explain why we were in the Forest of Death. If we were merchants or performers then we would have taken the road." Mitsune looked from Emiko to Riku and back again waiting for another suggestion.

"OH! I got it! We can say that someone on the side of the road asked us to deliver something important to their sick uncle or something, who just happened to live on the other side of that big fence. Then we can say that those people stole all of our stuff and ran off, leaving us to die in the forest!" Emiko smiled while Riku seemed to be thinking it over in her head.

"That's not a bad idea, but maybe a little too dramatic. Besides, how can we explain how we got in? Is there more than one door?" Riku looked to Mitsune as she asked the question. She may have been a huge otaku in the normal world, but she still didn't know that much about the Naruto world.

"Yeah they had different doors, but those would have been locked also, just like the one that we came through. But we still need to explain what those metal puppets were doing there. Also, I don't think that we should be merchants, we would have to explain what we were selling and I don't know that much about the economy here. Do you, Emiko?" Emiko shook her head and shrugged. Riku sighed and lay back on the bed next to Mitsune.

"Well I'm out of ideas. Mitsune, your turn. What do you got?" Mitsune smiled at her and stared at the ceiling as she explained her idea.

--------

_Who the hell are these girls?!!_ Tsunade looked over her desk at the three fidgeting strangers in her office. _They show up, out of nowhere dressed as shinobi but with no head bands. They beat up three of my ninja and then come crawling back begging for a medic!_ Tsunade continued to stare at the girls.

The one with the short brown hair seemed to be the most uncomfortable. Shifting from foot to foot, clasping her hands in front of herself then holding them behind her back. Every time her eyes met Tsunade's she would attempt a smile and then look away again.

The blonde girl was a little different. Tsunade could tell that she was nervous, but she was doing a better job of concealing it. Rocking back and forth on her heels, the girl whistled an unfamiliar song under her breath, looking out the window to avoid her staring. Whenever the song was supposedly supposed to get louder she would hold her breath and glance around the room. Probably wondering if anyone had heard her. _Ridiculous, it is so quiet in this room that I can practically hear the brown headed girls heartbeat._

Then Tsunade locked her gaze on the third girl, the one with the long brown hair. She looked completely relaxed, examining the room without fully taking her gaze away from Tsunade. When Tsunade looked straight at her, she looked back and smiled, waiting for her to speak. _She must be the leader, of sorts, of this little group._ Tsunade sat up from her chair and closed her eyes for a second. _Time to get some answers._

"Alright, you, in the middle. Tell me exactly why you are here and why three of my nin where unconscious on the forest floor." Tsunade tried to break the girls smile as she stepped forward, but she seemed unfazed and totally confident.

"Yes ma'am." The girl bowed her head in respect before beginning her tale. Well, first I would like to explain that we are not from this country, nor are we from any country on this continent. We are from across the sea on an expedition." Tsunade looked at her questioningly as a sign for her to continue. The girl gave another small smile.

"We were sent from our country on a mission of sorts. Our mission was to go to a place beyond the maps that we have, and discover what is there. After one year of exploring we are to return to our country and report what we have found." The girl bowed respectfully, motioning for her friends to follow suit. "And that is why we are in your wonderful city."

Tsunade almost smiled at the girls words. While she was talking, Tsunade had watched the other girls' faces, to see how they would react. The blonde was no help at all. She just kept staring out the window and whistling her little tune until her friend told her to bow.

The other brunette on the other hand was slightly more helpful. She continued to fidget while she spoke of their country and their mission, but when the one year deadline was mentioned, she stiffened and shot a look at the girl who was speaking. _Perhaps she does not like that she has told me when they are to be back at their country. Well it doesn't matter to me, but it is a curious thing to be worried about._

Smiling a crocodiles smile Tsunade turned to the brunette, and motioned her forward. The girl jumped but stepped forward shakily as the other girl stepped back. Inside, Tsunade grinned evilly as she noticed that though the girls smile was still in place, she nervously looked between her friend and Tsunade.

"Now, why don't you tell me your names and what happened to my ninja?" Tsunade tried her sweetest smile and voice to calm her down but it only seemed to make it worse. She glanced back at her friend for reassurance before taking a deep breath.

"Well, my name is Riku, this is Mitsune," she gestured at the girl that had spoken before. "and this is Emiko." At the sound of her name the blonde looked away from the window again and waved, albeit a little hyper. _Now who do I know who waves like that?_

"When we came here, we tried to walk as far inland as we could before we ran into a town or something. Somehow we managed to go pretty far without meeting anyone. So we decided to split up and see if we could find a river or something to guide us to a village. Mitsune, over there, found a river and we were just about to follow it when we were attacked by these three, what did you call them? Ninja? Well they asked what we were doing here and we said we were just passing through. For some reason they didn't believe us. So we escaped from them and continued on our way. We came across these really strange looking puppets. While we were fighting them Mitsune got hurt, so we ran for our lives. Then we ran across some guy in spandex and he led us here."

The brunette gave a little bow like before and stepped back. Tsunade looked at them suspiciously. They had yet to explain how they got into the Forest of Death. It was pretty clear how they had gotten out. They had smashed one of the locks on one of the gates.

Tsunade looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the geography of the place around the forest. Surrounding it was a wide open space then a metal fence. Any sane person would have noticed that, and would have gone around the gated area. _Hmmm, well they are from a different country. That's not a lie. Maybe they honestly didn't think to go around instead of through. For all I know, their villages are protected by wide open spaces and metal fences. Maybe it's natural for them to go over the fence to find a city._

Looking back at the girls Tsunade decided to give them a chance. If they were actually from a different country looking for new places, then she had the opportunity to gain new allies. If they weren't, she could always fine them and take their money, for the village of course.

"Well girls, you're in luck. There is a vacancy in the apartments closest to this building. Which I hoped you noticed is where the person who runs this particular country. I'm called the Hokage." Tsunade put emphasis on each of the syllables for the word Hokage. If they were going to live here for awhile then they should know who they were dealing with. "This town is called Konoha. And this country is called Land Hidden in the Leaves. Before you go, I would like to know exactly what your country is called, if I may."

Tsunade looked expectantly at the girls for their answer. The blonde turned away from the window again and smiled brightly. "We're from the country of the Land Hidden in the Americas!" Tsunade smiled but on the inside she was groaning. She had figured out who that girl reminded her of. _Naruto._

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**A/N: Okay, I admit that wasn't a very entertaining chapter, but it was kind of necessary since I'm not that good at bridging gaps in my mind. It took me forever just the think about how I was going to write this chapter. At least I put a little foreshadowing in there. If anyone can guess what place/manga/anime I was describing, you get a gold star and a whole batch of fresh cookies.**

**Here's a little something for thought while I try to write my next chapter, That dream is a place that my OC's will go to as well. It will not be a Naruto crossover but it is a sequel to this story. And don't worry, They will be going to other places as well as the one in the dream. Ja Ne!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Okay, I have no clue how long it has been since I last updated, all I know is that I actually got another review! I was sooo happy! It really motivated me to update! Anyway, if you guys want me to update more, then review! It makes me feel all fuzzy inside. :)**

"Well, that went better than expected." Riku flopped onto a nearby couch. She fluffed up her pillow and smiled at the ceiling. Mitsune laughed as Emiko sat upside down on a chair and started fiddling with her new made flute. At the sight of the flute, Mitsune stopped laughing and clutched at her stomach.

Riku looked over at Mitsune and saw the serious look on her face. Abruptly her spirits sank at finding a place to stay, and sat up to face her friend. "What is it? Is your stomach hurting?" Mitsune shook her head and shot a look over at Emiko.

"I think we need to talk about what's been happening so far." Emiko fidgeted in her chair, she could feel the others staring at her but couldn't bear to look up. She knew she had messed up, she had run away when they were in trouble. But she had come back hadn't she? Didn't that make up for it? 'No, of course not.' Emiko scrambled upright, crossing her legs and placing the flute to the side.

"You're damn right we need to talk about it!" Riku glared at Emiko who flinched at her harsh words. Mitsune just stared. Usually Riku wasn't so blunt when she talked to the blonde girl, but today was definitely an exception. She glanced over at the blonde and sighed. Damn those puppy-dog-anime eyes.

"That's not what I meant." Mitsune gently pushed Riku over so she had a place to sit. She cuddled up against the arm of the couch so she could keep an eye on them both. It had been a very trying day and there was no telling whether they were going to start fighting or crying first. Mitsune took a deep breath before speaking again.

"I meant that we need to talk about what we're going to do next. We have to figure out how to get home." Riku immediately stopped glaring daggers at Emiko, who looked like she had just gotten tasered and stared at her like she had two heads.

"You really think we can get home?" Mitsune felt her heart wrench at how hopeless Emiko sounded. She was always so full of energy it was painful to hear her speak to the contrary. Mitsune caught Riku rubbing at her eyes before she turned her glare to her instead.

"Speaking of home, why did you tell that scary old lady we were going home in a year? There's no telling how long it will take us to get home! What happens when a year has gone by and we're still here? What'll happen to us then?" Riku's eyes started to water again but she quickly wiped them again and turned away. Emiko's eyes seemed to do the same at the idea of being in the Naruto world for longer than a week, but she didn't hide it. She only looked down at her flute and started fiddling with it again, trying to find some comfort.

"I'm sorry I added that. It just seemed like the rational thing to say at that time. I mean, wouldn't people going on that kind of mission be given some kind of time period? Like, if they...got lost...while they were gone, then the government, or whoever could send more people." Mitsune stumbled over her words, trying not to mention death. But her friends understood anyway. Tears started to gently fall down Emiko's cheeks, never taking her eyes off her flute. Riku continued to stare at the wall.

Mitsune scrambled to stop Emiko's tears. "But look on the bright side! We have a freakin' amazing opportunity here! How many times have you ever thought of going inside your favorite anime?" Emiko gave a weak smile, slowly wiping away her tears. "Or ever dreamt of being a ninja, a real ninja?" Mitsune saw Riku's shoulders relax. Mitsune smiled. "I'll tell you one thing; I can't wait to walk on water."

Emiko laughed and Mitsune's smile grew wider at the sound. One down. "Yeah. I wanna try making clones." Mitsune laughed at Emiko's silly grin and they both ended up laughing uncontrollably.

"Like we need more of you around." Their laughter was immediately cut off. Cautiously, Mitsune looked over at her friend. Riku was glaring back at the both of them, no sign of laughter on her face.

"I mean, how many demon Sailor Moons can one town take? We've already killed a bunch of puppets, not to mention that poor gate!" Emiko and Mitsune shared a look, stunned. Riku continued to stare at them with a straight face before bursting out into laughter.

Mitsune waited until she had caught her breath before she stood up and wandered around the couches. "Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm insanely curious what the rest of this place looks like." Not waiting for the others to catch up she began to wander the suite, opening every door she came too. Including closets. Geeze were there a lot of closets.

In true anime style, the apartment suite they had been assigned was on the second floor, all the way at the end of the hall. In true Naruto style, it was probably the only room in the entire complex that could be invaded by shinobi directly from the Hokage's office. Mitsune arched out through an open window in the kitchen, trying to see if the roofs were connected. The buildings were so close that if they were invaded, they probably wouldn't bother using the windows if the roof was that much closer.

She was still leaning out the window when Riku yelled from the living room.

"Mitsune! Come here! Quick!" Mitsune sighed and closed the window behind her. Just when she was starting to enjoy the view. Konaha really was much prettier in person.

"What is it?" Mitsune eyed the cabinets wondering what kind of supplies they had for dinner and how much they would have to buy themselves.

"We have a visitor! Get in here!" All thoughts of food flew from her mind. A visitor. The vaguest way possible to describe the impending doom at their doorstep.

Mitsune scrambled around the corner trying to remember her way back to the living room. The apartment was small, but at that moment, it could have been the Minotaur's maze for all she knew. It could be anyone at their door. Shizune, not a problem. Lee, slightly annoying, but manageable. Just about any other character...not so good.

She screeched to a halt when she heard Emiko's high pitched voice coming from around the corner. Wouldn't be a good first impression to have her careening around a corner, dis-shelved and out of breath. If there really was a shinobi in the other room, they needed to look as professional as possible. Mitsune took a deep breath and walked into the room.

_"Really, I thought I trained you better Naruto. Beaten by one shinobi?" Kakashi sighed as they walked towards the Hokage's office._

_"It wasn't just any ninja! That guy was nuts!" Naruto yelled, waving his arms in the air._

_"Hmph. And by nuts you mean better than you." Neji scowled at the ground as the passed through the doors of the office building. He couldn't stop thinking about the fight they had been horribly creamed in earlier. They were shinobi of Kanoha; they were supposed to be able to handle themselves in fair odds. They were trained to at least injure their opponents mortally. But instead, they had gotten their arses handed to them._

_"Come on Neji, were we any better? We all lost one-on-one. They couldn't have been normal ninja; even Akamaru thought they smelt funny." The little puppy barked in agreement, poking his head out of Kiba's jacket. Neji fumed for a few steps before turning to Kiba._

_"What do you mean, 'they smelt funny?'." Kiba shrugged. Neji pinched between his eyes and sighed, these two idiots were going to be the death of him. Naruto was still ranting and waving when they entered the Hokage's office._

_"NARUTO! Would you at least try to keep your voice down! You're ruining the alcohol!" Neji's headache worsened at Tsunade's added yelling. That woman had lungs of steel. "And you! Keep it down!" The glass worker flinched and apologized profusely before turning back to the ruined window._

_Kakashi sighed while Naruto sulked. "You wanted to see me Lady Tsunade?" Tsunade 'hmphed' and sat back down in her new chair, sipping sake to sooth her nerves._

"_Yes, I have a special mission for you. We managed to recover a spear from the Forest of Death. We think it is made of the same material as the puppets that the ambassadors were talking about. I've already had the Science Department run a diagnostic, and have been able to narrow down where they might have come from. Most of the Anbu teams are still out, so I need you to get together a three-man team and see if you can't track these rouge shinobi down." Tsunade passed Kakashi a list of all the possible suspect villages for investigation. Kakashi took one look and sighed, this was going to take a while._

"_Anything else, Lady Tsunade?" _

"_Yes, do me a favor and drop by next door and give the new ambassadors the basic rundown, would you? I've got too much paperwork to do."_

_Kakashi saluted before poofing out of the office, leaving the other three shinobi with the temperamental woman._

"_And you three," the shinobi in question stiffened to attention. "You have a lot of explaining to do."_

"Hello ladies! It's nice to finally meet you! You're all quite the talk of the town, literally." The man in their door smirked happily. Not that you could really tell, his mask covered almost all of his face. Mitsune tried not to stare at his silver hair too much as she made her way towards the others.

It seemed as though Emiko was the one who had opened the door, she was still standing in awe of the man at the door. So it was Riku had managed to yell a warning; it seemed her control over her suspicious tendencies was easily thwarted by funky anime characters. She was currently trying to edge her way behind the couch while simultaneously glaring daggers and trying not to be too conspicuous.

Emiko shook herself a little and stared up at Kakashi, sparkles now dancing in her eyes. "Hi Kakashi! Wow! It's so cool to meet you! I mean just wow! You are, like, I mean, just-" Mitsune jumped in before Emiko could make a fool of herself.

"What she means to say is Tsunade mentioned that someone might be over, and the nurses at the hospital talked a lot about you." Mitsune glanced over at Emiko, who was still making googly eyes. She tugged her back a bit to give Kakashi some space. "Would you like to come in, sir?" Mitsune stressed the 'sir' part a bit, hoping Emiko would get the hint.

No such luck, her googly eyes were slowing developing into lovey-dovey; small hearts were starting to appear. _I wonder if anyone else can see the anime animation?_ She was snapped out of her musings when Kakashi spoke.

"Sorry, I have to be somewhere, I just stopped by to give you these." He fished three plastic cards out of his vest pocket and handed them to Emiko. It was all she could do not to squee. Mitsune kept her eyes on the ninja, aware that Riku was still in battle mode behind her. "These are I.D.'s that Lady Tsunade had made for visitors such as you. These will pay for the rent, groceries and anything else you might need while you're here. Of course they won't work if you leave the village, but I would recommend the hot springs, personally." Kakashi smiled again and was about to leave when Riku spoke up.

"So, are we supposed to talk to you if we have any questions?" Kakashi laughed embarrassedly and scratched the back of his head. Riku's eyes narrowed.

"Ah, well, I have to leave for awhile, but I think Lady Tsunade had someone else in mind to escort you around the village. They should be here any minute—Oh wait! Here they are! Well, I'll just leave you girls to it!" Kakashi practically ran away from their doorstep. Mitsune was about to close it, when she heard voices from down the hall.

"Where is he going in such a hurry? You'd think he would have a little courtesy to us poor girls."

"D-Don't say s-such things Ino. I-I'm sure he h-had a good r-reason."

"Hey guys we're here, so be on your best behavior."

"Pfft! I know, I know, Billboard Brow.

Riku glanced at Mitsune worriedly. "Um, you're gonna break the doorknob if you keep squeezing it like that." Mitsune's knuckles continued to pale from the pressure as all the blood drained from her face. _Oh no, not more!_

Mitsune panicked. She practically slammed the door shut before the new voices could make it. She scanned the room before landing on Emiko, still fangirling in the corner. Emiko jumped when Mitsune grabbed her by the shoulders. "U-uh…hi?" Emiko stood stock still, wincing slightly at the other girl's tight grip.

"Emiko, I need you to listen veeeery carefully, alright?" Emiko nodded slowly. "We are ambassadors from a foreign country. We don't know anybody here, what they are, what they do: nothing! We know absolutely nothing! You got that!" Emiko nodded more vigorously this time. "And that means we cannot afford for you to go bat-fangirl-crazy. I need you to be sane, and collected when I open that door, alright?"

Emiko beamed and shot Mitsune two thumbs up. "You can count on me boss!" Mitsune still looked worried, but realized this was the best she was going to get. She glanced over at Riku and took a deep breath. A knock on the door almost sent her panicking again, but Riku opened the door before she could completely calm down.

Standing in the door were three other girls, just about their age. One was wearing a kind of purple dress and white arm bands, her long blonde hair almost covering her blue eyes. She was apparently the one who had knocked, because her arm was still raised, about to knock again. She blinked in surprise before smiling brightly.

"H-hi! My name's Ino and these are my friends Hinata and Sakura. We're here to show you guys around while you're staying with us. I hope we can be good friends!" Her smile was so sunny, it bordered on blatantly fake. With what she remembered about Ino, it might just be a perfectly constructed mask. For all she knew, Ino had just been fighting in the hall. Mitsune was so surprised by Ino's attitude she didn't really know how to respond. Riku was no help either; she was too busy staring at Sakura's trademark pink hair. The awkward tension was broken, unexpectedly, by Emiko.

"Hello, and nice to meet you. My name is Emiko, and these are my friends Mitsune and Riku. It is an honor to be here, please take care of us." Emiko bowed slightly and smiled her own 100 watt smile. The three shinobi were floored by Emiko's perfectly formal speech. Hinata was the first to recover and bow in return. The others quickly followed suit.

With the introductions out of the way, things quickly got awkward once again. Riku looked to Mitsune for advice on what to do next, but she just shrugged in a sort of "whatever" fashion.

"Well, we don't have anything to do, so, let's go see this town of yours." Riku motioned for the other girls to follow her and stepped out into the hall. Mitsune closed the door behind her and they all made their way out to the streets. _So far, so good._

"Where should we go next?" Sakura looked around at the group, looking for ideas. So far they had shown the three strangers the Hokage Statue's, the grocery store and hospital. They already knew where the Hokage's office was, and the school wasn't very far from there. She had run out of important places they would need to know about and there was still a few hours of light left in the day. The blonde haired girl, Emiko, rubbed her stomach and made a face.

"Is there somewhere we can get something to eat? I haven't had anything all day!" Sakura sweatdropped at her pouting face. One of the other girls, Riku maybe?, rolled her eyes at the blonde's whining. The last one though, Mitsune, just smiled.

"I think food would be a great idea. Is there a place that has noodles or something?" For some reason the blonde got really excited over the mention of noodles, but Sakura decided to ignore it.

"Yeah, sure. It's not that far away. What about you guys, up for some ramen?" Sakura willed herself not to flinch at Emiko's squeal of excitement. Ino flipped her hair and agreed, saying how she couldn't leave the ambassadors with her or something or other; she wasn't really listening. Hinata blushed and looked down at the ground. Most likely thinking of another blonde who was probably there right now.

"Alright, Ichiraku it is." This time Sakura really did flinch, that blonde was gonna end up getting hit sometime soon, and apparently Riku agreed for she actually did hit the girl for squealing yet again.

"Emiko! Would you please keep the high pitched noises to yourself today? Thanks."

Emiko rubbed her sore head and pouted. "Party pooper." Mitsune smiled again and gestured towards her. "So which way, Captain?" Sakura rolled her eyes and started walking. Between the always hyper blonde, a ticked off brunette and the way too agreeable 'leader', the whole ambassador thing was turning out to be more trouble than it was worth.

_**SLURP!**_

"Aah! Awesome! Another round please!" Emiko carefully laid down yet another ramen bowl. The chef laughed from behind the counter and placed another ready and waiting bowl in front of her. The three shinobi just stared in wonder.

"Wow, her stomach is almost as big as Naruto's!" Ino watched in disgust as the other blonde downed the latest bowl of noodles. Sakura shook her head and turned to the others.

"Does she always eat like this?" The two brunettes stopped eating and replied in complete unison.

"Yup." Totally in sync and nonchalant, they continued to eat their own food, ignoring their third partner. Sakura hmphed to herself. _A bunch of talkers you are._ She tried to start another conversation when Hinata spoke up.

"H-Hi N-Naruto." Sakura looked over to see Hinata looking shyly at her noodles; next to her, Naruto loudly yelled for his own.

"Hey Hinata! What are you guys doing here?" At least that's what Sakura thought he said; it was hard to tell with all the ramen in his mouth. He was on his third bowl when he finally noticed the three strangers at the end of the counter. He nearly choked as he jumped up from the counter, pointing at the girls, still calmly eating.

"What the HELL! What are they doing here? OW!" The three ambassadors looked up at the last part to see Naruto on the ground with Sakura standing over him, fist raised. Sakura smirked. "Didn't anybody tell you it's rude to point?"

"Nice one billboard-brow!" Sakura smiled at Ino who was smirking down at the fallen ninja. Hinata was still blushing, but was watching him to make sure he was alright. Emiko and Riku, on the other hand, laughed and went back to slurping their noodles. Sakura looked past them to see how the last member of the party had reacted. The way the first two had laughed suggested that these kinds of scenes weren't unheard of in their country; maybe random acts of violence were normal where they came from.

She was surprised to find that Mitsune wasn't even paying attention. Her hands were white-knuckled and gripping the counter for dear life. She was completely tense and staring intently at her bowl of ramen. Sakura saw her glance quickly from side to side before Naruto got up and started yelling again.

"What the heck Sakura! Why'd you hit me? And what are you doing with…these guys?" Riku grinned mischievously and waved. Naruto glared back.

"Haven't you heard?" Naruto looked to Ino who was preening with pride at something she knew and he didn't. "Heard what?" He asked suspiciously. Ino stood and gestured dramatically at the three girls still seated. "May I introduce, Kanoha's three newest ambassadors from the Land Hidden in the America's! This is Emiko, Riku and Mitsune."

Emiko smiled through her noodles and waved without missing a beat. Riku smiled, albeit a little evilly, and waved again at her intro. When Mitsune's name was mentioned, she jumped in her seat, almost as if she had forgotten where she was. Recovering quickly she stood and pushed her forgotten ramen towards Emiko. Smiling brightly, she bowed deeply at Naruto. Naruto jumped in surprise.

"On behalf of me and my partners, we would like to apologize for earlier. If we had known that you were a warrior of this fine country we would not have behaved in the manner in which we did. Again, we would be very grateful if you and your friends could forgive us for any problems we may have caused you." Mitsune bowed again, her long hair hiding the smile on her face. Naruto panicked and tried to get help from his fellow ninja who either smirked back or blushed at the ground. He panicked a little more before finally bowing in return and trying to sound as business-like as possible.

"The village of Kanoha is, uh, honored to have such…distinguished, visitors to our humble city…a-and we would like to…uh, apologize as well for any…inconveniences that you might have endured to come here. I guess."

"Wow Naruto, I didn't know you knew such big words." Naruto glared at Ino as best he could from his awkward angle, still waiting for the other girl to get up first. He didn't have to wait long. Mitsune practically bounced back up, another bright smile on her face. "Apology accepted!" Without another word she sat back down next to Riku, who was trying her hardest not to burst out laughing. Naruto stood up slowly, blinking. "Uh…what?" Riku burst out into full blown laughter, just confusing him more. "Okay, what just happened?"

Emiko turned around on her stool and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, half the time I don't know what's going on either." Riku's laughter got louder. "Wanna have a ramen eating contest?" Naruto looked between the laughing brunette and the smiling girl in front of him before giving in. "You're on!"

Sakura turned away from the battling blondes and looked over at Mitsune again. She was tense, staring at her ramen again. Discreetly, Sakura scanned the streets behind them from the corners of her eyes. Using some of her ninja skills, she could just barely sense someone watching them. _Apparently our new 'ambassadors' have some talents of their own._

**A/N: Okay, I know it's been a long time, but I've had such a major case of brain block, I couldn't think of anything worth writing. I think this chapter is on the dry side, sorry to say. If there's going to be another chapter to this thing-between getting ready for college and being a beta (finally! :D)- I promise it's going to be more exciting. I'm gonna try to get some actual plot related things in here. ;) Til next time!**


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